Ugandan government announces all women to receive antiretroviral drugs

An influencial non-government organisation in Uganda has called on the adult population to abstain from extra marital sex in order to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus. This comes just a day after the government announced that all women will be entitled to antiretroviral drugs in a bid to prevent mother to child transmission of the deadly virus.

Reuters/Thomas Mukoya

Although the Uganda Aids Support Initiative supoorts treatment, it said yesterday that prevention is better than a cure.

Hamza Muonge, the director of the Uganda Aids Support Initiative added that abstention is still the best way to prevent the spread of HIV.

He expressed doubts about government plans to roll out an antiretroviral drug programme for mothers and children citing the difficulty in reaching many of the target recipients.

The ministry of health has also announced plans to give all new born babies antiretroviral drugs until they can be tested for HIV at around two months old.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that the infection rate has shot up from 6.4 percent in 2005 to 7.3 in September 2011.

According to the Ugandan health marketing team 31,200 newborn babies are infected through their mothers every year.

Uganda is aiming to reduce the risk to the global target of 5 percent by 2015.