AIDS in Africa During the Nineties Uganda

This 86-page report from the Government of Uganda and the MEASURE project covers trends in youth knowledge and behavior related to HIV as well as the implications of these findings. The report is based on an analysis and review of existing data in Uganda during the nineties and was carried out as part of a series of reports on AIDS-related trends during the nineties. A companion report detailing trends among the general population was published in 2003.

“Uganda has been frequently cited as a success story in HIV/AIDS prevention, due to the large declines in HIV prevalence that occurred during the 1990s. After the first cases of AIDS were identified in 1982, the number of HIV infections increased rapidly throughout the country. By
1988, an estimated 1 million Ugandans were thought to be infected and Uganda had one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Africa. By 1990, HIV prevalence among women attending antenatal services exceeded 20% at two urban sites (MOH, 2002). After a decade of increasing prevalence, the spread of the epidemic began to wane in the early 1990s. Since 1993, there is evidence of a consistent decline in HIV prevalence among pregnant women and in other populations under surveillance. More important, Uganda’s HIV surveillance system has recorded steady declines in HIV prevalence among young pregnant women – indicating that the number of new infections is on the decline.

HIV prevention programmes aimed at reducing risk behaviour among youth are particularly important for protecting adolescents as the vulnerable group, as well as for stemming the spread of HIV/AIDS. prevention programmes for youth have focused on:

• increasing knowledge about HIV and how it is transmitted and can be prevented;
• encouraging young people to delay the age at which they first have sex;
• encouraging young people to abstain from sex;
• encouraging those who are sexually active to have just one partner; and
• encouraging use of condoms if having sex with someone other than a spouse.”