BADRU AFUNAH
2010 HIV sero-behavioural study in six universities in Uganda published in 2012 shows that the HIV prevalence rate is estimated at
1.2 percent, with the highest being Gulu University’s at 1.8%; IUIU coming second at 1.5%; Kampala International University and Uganda Christian University Mukono both stood at 1.3%.
Makerere University stands at 1% and Mbarara University of Science and Technology has the lowest rate at 0.4%. However, students from some universities did not agree with the findings.
Najib Kasozi, a then second-year student of Information Technology, believes the report is not valid because as a university body, they can’t have a higher AIDS rate than Makerere University. “It is only because few Makerere University students go for testing;
in addition, they are more than us such that one percent of Makerere may represent a lot more students than IUIU’s 1.5 percent,” he added.
But perhaps the reason Makerere is having a lower prevalence rate inspite of its location is because of the measures it has taken in
fighting the disease.
To prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Makerere has partnered with nonprofit organisations to supply condoms to students through student leaders and peer educators.
21-year-old student stands outside Lumumba Hall of Residence, where he lives. It is a Friday evening and the student, Kwesiga, needs to get enough condoms to last him through the weekend, he says. He is waiting for a fellow student who distributes condoms at the university every day.
The second-year student, who declined to have his second name published to avoid ridicule from family and friends, says he has many sexual partners, mostly university students.
Kwesiga uses free condoms supplied by the university to protect himself from sexually transmitted diseases and to avoid getting his
partners pregnant.
Since entering the university a year and a half ago, the mass communications major has obtained at least three packets of condoms every weekend from peer educators in his residence hall.
“I have had sexual encounters with many girls here in Makerere and I always test negative,” he says. “This is because I consistently use condoms.”
Many students his age are sexually active, and some have multiple sexual partners, Kwesiga says, making it important to provide ready access to condoms.
“Whenever I need condoms, I just go to a peer educator in my hall of residence and get some at no cost,” he says. “So I have a condom whenever I need one.”
Makerere University’s high incidences of sexually transmitted diseases prompted the administration to set up a reproductive health clinic and to begin distributing condoms in 2005, says Justine Kigongo, one of the university’s hospital’s counselors.
Among young, unmarried people in Uganda who are ages 15 to 24 when they have their first sexual encounters, 37 percent of females and 59 percent of males use condoms, according to a 2013 study published in the African Health Sciences Journal.
Among those who had more than one sexual partner in the past 12 months, just 31 percent of women and 19 percent of men reported using a condom during their last sexual intercourse, according to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2011.
According to another report of a survey commissioned by the Ministry reveals that at least 427, 112 learners, teachers and non- teaching staff are carrying the virus.
The figure represents nearly a quarter of known national prevalence rate which stands at slightly over two million.
You must be logged in to post a comment.