Our story, ‘Places with highest new HIV infections’, in the Daily Monitor of Thursday August 27, 2026 shows that we could easily drop the ball when it comes to the fight against HIV if we let complacency have its way.
According to the story, figures from the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) indicate that the majority of the country’s 37,000 annual new HIV infections occur in Buganda, Ankole, Tooro and Busoga sub-regions, with each reporting more than 2,000 new cases. Wakiso topped the list as the hardest-hit district, registering nearly 4,000 new infections every year.
Ms Juliet Nassuna, the HIV focal person for Wakiso, attributes the alarming infection rates to a number of factors including complacency in following the prescribed prevention measures amid the shortages of condoms and HIV testing kits, unregulated massage parlours, mushrooming rural bars, and high unemployment that are forcing the youth into transactional sex.
Dr Nelson Musoba, the director general of Uganda Aids Commission, mentions alcohol consumption as a problem that exacerbates the problem. Other factors highlighted are gender-based violence, low risk perception and urbanisation.
It is prudent to note that quickly bundling these factors as the gaps to plug and coming up with a one size fits all intervention might not be as effective.
That is why we agree with Dr Vincent Bagambe, the Uganda Aids Commission director of planning and strategic information, when he says the drivers of infections in urban areas cannot be generalised.
He says: ‘Each city has its own uniqueness. Some cities are getting increasing new HIV infections because of the sprouting and unplanned residential areas. But some of them are because the surrounding districts have increased economic activity. We’ve seen where there is mining, where there is a coffee boom, we keep getting reports that prostitution in those areas increases.’
This means interventions have to be tailored to the specific risk factors in the different regions for lasting impact and change to be achieved. The underlying issues should also be probed, understood and then dealt with accordingly.
Let us not pay the high price of complacency in this fight. Now that we have the numbers, it is not a blind fight. We know where the gaps in the HIV/Aids fight are and what is fuelling them.
This information should be enough to guide on how best those gaps can be plugged. Let’s keep our guard up in the fight against HIV.