Uganda Renews Media Strategy in HIV/AIDS Fight as Infection Rate Soars

On Tuesday, a Ugandan AIDS official said the government will concentrate more on promoting HIV prevention messages in collaboration with media outlets. The country must refocus on prevention because of the increasing number of new HIV infections, Kihumuro Apuuli, the director-general of Uganda's AIDS Commission, told media executives in Kampala.

"We need to work together to make sure this message is all over the airwaves," Apuuli said. "If we partner properly we can reverse the trend of this virus. We owe it to ourselves to change the destiny of this country; we want to see a reversal and an end of this virus."

In 2008, Uganda recorded more than 110,000 new HIV diagnoses and 63,000 HIV-related deaths, according to the commission. Of the 320,000 HIV-positive Ugandans who need antiretroviral therapy, just 191,000 patients can access it -- at a lifetime cost to the government of more than $11,500 per person.

In terms of development, HIV/AIDS is draining Uganda, said Jesse Kagimba, senior presidential advisor on HIV/AIDS. "We might be training people, building roads, but we are bleeding to death. All these being trained are dying of AIDS."

Kagimba urged the media to return to messages that instill fear among the public, saying that only fear could bring down Uganda's prevalence rate.

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