Uganda's HIV Success Questioned

With an official HIV prevalence rate of only 6 percent, Uganda is often spotlighted as a success story in the fight against AIDS. But new research, conducted in districts across the country, suggests the true rate is much worse.

"We have found the prevalence rate at this time is 17 percent," said Major Rubaramira Ruranga, executive director of the National Guidance and Empowerment Network of people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NGEN).

Ruranga, who said he has been living with HIV for 21 years, told a news conference that NGEN is in touch with HIV-positive people across the country and used these networks to determine how many people in each village are HIV-positive. This research, he said, shows that HIV prevalence is 30 percent in the western Rukungiri area; 20 percent in Busia, near the Kenyan border; and 18 percent in the northern district of Apac.

Also present at the news conference was Dr. Elizabeth Namagala of the Ministry of Health's AIDS control program. She acknowledged that HIV rates are higher in some parts of the country than the national average, but she stressed that the ministry's research is more scientific than NGEN's. Still, she welcomed the new findings as "useful data."

Dr. Peter Mugenyi, who chairs Uganda's AIDS task force, said that while he doubts the new figures are as accurate as the government's, he welcomes them if they lead people to take more precautions.

Back to other news for September 22, 2004