A snake in the house: living with AIDS in Uganda
Toomey, G.
Idrc Reports 18(2): 6-9
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0315-9981 PMID: 12342724 Document Number: 250194
As of August 1989, 5508 cases of AIDS had been reported in Uganda--the largest cumulative number of any African country. The seroprevalence rate has been estimated at 1-5% in rural Uganda, but is 5-15% in villages along the trading route and 5-10% in urban centers such as Kampala. Almost all cases involve people over 15 years of age with a history of multiple sex partners and sexually transmitted diseases. The number of minimum of 300,000 cases by May 1991. Despite a lack of financial and manpower resources, the Government of Uganda has taken an aggressive, open stance toward the AIDS epidemic and the World Health Organization (WHO) has contributed more to Uganda's control program than any other in the world. Uganda's AIDS Control Program has a staff of 50, including 4 WHO experts, and 100 local health education are involved. Among the program's functions are: 1) to monitor the epidemic through surveys and issue statistics on numbers of cases and infection rates, 2) to run a large public education program, 3) to screen the blood supply, 4) to operate test facilities, and 5) to protect public health workers by providing them with sterilization equipment and gloves.