As HIV/AIDs continues to spread among young Ugandans, local leaders in Hoima District have asked the government to allow and promote the use of the virus testing strips among younger women and adolescent girls who are disproportionately affected by the epidemic in the area.
The district vice chairperson, Hellen Mulumba, said that although several interventions have been put in place to reduce the spread of the disease among teenagers, little has been fully achieved.
‘It can be easy for a boy child to buy a condom and move with it, but it may not be easy for a girl child to go to any pharmacy to ask for a condom. It can be easy for a girl child to buy HIV testing strips and move with them,’ she noted.
She said if such a process is implemented, it will help to prevent HIV in secondary school, especially in that age bracket of 16 to 20 years. She expressed concern.
“We have school-going children who are born with HIV, the AIDS virus. Still, they are on medication, their colleagues are at school and not aware that their colleagues are on medication, and in the process, they engage in sexual acts without knowledge of how to test themselves,” she said.
“Let’s introduce that method of self-test in those schools to curb the spread of the disease among the youth,’ Ms Mulumba urged during an awareness campaign dubbed ‘Sexual exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment’ at Hoima Youth Centre.
The campaign is being piloted in the three districts of Hoima, Nakaseke, and Buikwe, funded by the Global Fund and implemented by The Aids support Organisation (TASO)-Uganda, after realising that the growing sexual abuse and exploitation are retarding the efforts made towards fighting HIV/AIDS.
The HIV prevalence rate for Hoima district was estimated to be 4.2 percent, according to their 2023 statistics. But recent reports from early 2025 cite a higher rate of 9.6 per cent.
These figures are higher than the national average of 5 percent, with the higher rate being linked to an increase in the influx of people due to oil and gas exploration in the area.
She said that one of the drivers of HIV/AIDS spread is the fishing communities.
‘We have communities where we have no schools or health facilities. You find when they are sleeping in a hut, accommodating over 10 family members, in just one room, the parents are bossy there, the children are all sharing the same hut, there is no privacy,’ she lamented.
The senior Technical Advisor for prevention at the Aids Support Organisation (TASO) Uganda, Ms Irene Murungi, said that during the campaign carried out in the three districts of Hoima, Nakaseke, and Buikwe, they have compiled cases of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and action will be taken as a measure to end the vice.
She rallied religious leaders to join the fight to prevent the spread of the virus.
‘What is very common in the three districts is the indifference of religious institutions that are expected to play a critical role. So our call is to them to amplify the voice in seeing how best they can support and protect the people they work with,’ Ms Murungi added.
However, the director of Planning at the Uganda Aids commission, Dr Vincent Bagambe, said curbing HIV/AIDS spread requires a combination of interventions for the country to succeed.
‘There is no magic in the fight against HIV/aids spread, all the interventions should be followed. ‘Abstain, Be faithful and/or use a Condom’ is a sex education strategy known as the ABC model that must be promoted,’ Dr Bagambe said.