Source: The New Vision
After years of trailblazing the world in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Uganda is losing gains it initially made in cutting the prevalence of the disease to complacency, global health experts have disclosed.
The experts noted that with advancement in treatment of the pandemic and the advent of the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), people are becoming more complacent and reverting to risky behaviour.
They made the comments on Monday during the five-day British Broadcasting Corporation science festival in Uganda at Makerere University.
They noted that since the introduction of free ARVs in Uganda in 2004, many people have come to believe that HIV is no longer a problem.
Subsequently, many Ugandans are engaging in unprotected casual sex, while many couples are having extra-marital sexual relationships.
The experts included Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Prof. Nelson Sewankambo, the principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences.
Others were Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of the Uganda Virus Research Institute and Dr. Alex Godwin Coutinho, the director of the Infectious Disease Institute.
Sewankambo said: "There was a time in the mid-eighties when you would drive through terrified rural communities and find one village after another burying an AIDS victim, but now you can hardly see people getting sick. With ARVs, people look better and live normal lives with the disease."