HIV VIRUS IN UGANDA TODAY
AIDS is a leading cause of death in Uganda, killing more than 200 people a day, devastating the 25-40 year-old segment of the population, and leaving behind more than 2.4 million orphans since the epidemic's onset. 60% of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the country are women. In Uganda today, 63% of all orphans are living without both natural parents.
Uganda was one of the first nations on the African continent to implement policies and programs to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic, serving as a model for reversing this worldwide health crisis. Partnerships between government, non-governmental, and community-based organizations and the private sector have been vital to mitigating the impact of Uganda's crisis.
In the last decade, Uganda has reduced HIV infection rates from 30% of the population in 1993 to 7% in 2007. However, without access to anti-retroviral drugs, this decline is due in part to the near certain mortality of people living with AIDS as much as it reflects the aggressive and effective campaign to curtail new infections. Uganda's crisis is far from over. Continued vigilance to ensure a declining rate of infection is crucial even as Uganda struggles to provide care and comfort for the sick and secure the basic rights to food, shelter, medicine and education for its children. HIV/AIDS will continue to impact Uganda for generations to come.
FACTS ABOUT THE CHILDREN IN UGANDA
Significant investments in children and women in recent years have led to developmental successes in Uganda, notably in primary education and in the fight against HIV/AIDS. However, in the north, nearly two decades of conflict between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have spurred a severe humanitarian crisis marked by widespread insecurity and massive displacement. Uganda has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict. A Children’s Act, based on the CRC, was passed in 1996.
Issues facing children in Uganda
Malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhea are the main causes of under-5 mortality.
· Approximately 20,000 babies are infected by HIV annually through mother-to-child transmission.
· Nearly half of the estimated 2 million orphans are orphaned due to AIDS, with the total expected to rise to 3.5 million by 2010.
· Net primary school attendance has risen to 87 percent.
· Children and women comprise 80 percent of the 1.4 million people forced to flee their homes due to conflict. They live in more than 200 camps, with limited services.
· The LRA has abducted more than 25,000 children since 1986.
· In the conflict-affected districts, around 40,000 unaccompanied children – the ‘night commuters’ – walk every night from their homes in outlying villages to urban centers, in search of protection from the threat of LRA abductions and attacks.
· Activities and results for children
· 13.5 million children (6 months-15 years) immunized against measles in 2003.
· More than 4 million children reached in twice-yearly national “Child Days” to accelerate Vitamin A supplementation, catch-up immunizations and de-worming.
· 3.7 million girls benefiting from the expansion of the Girls’ Education Movement (GEM) to 18 districts.
· 9,600 excluded and disadvantaged children reached through 250 non-formal/complementary learning centers.
· 512,000 mothers assisted at 91 sites for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS.
· 1.4 million children registered through a revitalized birth-and-death registration program in 25 districts.
· 300,000 displaced children (under-5) served by 2,300 community health volunteers, equipped with first-line treatment drugs in the conflict-affected districts.
· 8,000 severely malnourished children assisted by provision of therapeutic milk and high-energy biscuits to Therapeutic Feeding Centers in the conflict-affected districts.
· 120,000 primary school pupils and 12,000 pre-school children assisted in temporary learning centers and Early Childhood Development (ECD) sites.
· More than 400,000 people benefiting from the provision of clean water through motorized pump systems in camps for displaced people.
· More than 5,000 children who had been abducted by the LRA were reunited with their families after receiving basic medical care, psychosocial counseling and family-tracing support in reception centers.
· More than 30,000 child “night commuters” assisted through the provision of emergency shelter and household items.”
Reprinted from http://www.unicef.org/
