Women's day: Let men celebrate, emulate their high uptake of HIV prevention, care, and treatment services.
It is ten years since Alen,not real names lost her husband to HIV/AIDS.
But she always refers to his death as suicidal. Reason? Because much as he knew they were HIV positive,she he vehemently refused to enroll on treatment; with the inception of Anti Retrial Viral Drugs,HIV is no more a death sentence.
But in contrast,Allen took courage, accepted the sour fate and started drugs;adhered to it,and as she speaks,her viral load is undetectable!
The 33 year old even got married to another man with whom she bore an HIV free baby,thanks to Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMCT)
Allen's husband adds a figure to the huge list of men who prematurely succumb to HIV/AIDS related diseases because of their low uptake of test,treatment, and adherence to drugs. At a micro level,a look at Kitovu Mobile's 2018 ARV adherence data, from 150 adult women had good adherence compared to the 80 men.
This will still be reflected in low Viral Load Suppression (VLS) prevalence. VLS is when an HIV positive is virus is not detected; this stems from good drug adherence
Nationally,The prevalence of VLS among all HIV-positive adults aged 15 to 64 in Uganda is 59.6%: 62.9% among females and 53.6% among males,as indicated in the The Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA), a household-based national survey, that was conducted from August 2016 to March 2017 to assess
the progress of Uganda’s national HIV response. UPHIA offered household-based HIV counseling and testing.
The ill fate of men's low uptake is seen in high HIV/AID mortalities,where more men succumb HIV related deaths compared to women as dislcosed by Uganda Aids Commission,despite HIV prevalence is higher among the latter.
This makes Uganda lose productive labour force, of which is not easily replaced like medical doctors
As Dr Steven Watiti,an HIV/AIDS activist noted,It hurts seeing a doctor succumbing to AIDS because he refused to take test,or take drugs consistently,yet he knows that the country has chronic shortage of Doctors.
It also quickens families' vulnerability,after death of bread winners. This robes children of their right to education and other basic needs.
Some orphans are fortunate that Kitovu Mobile, provides school fees and makes types realise their dreams, but majority have their dreams shuttered, storming streets for survival as the girls chose to engage in commercial sex and early marriages which exposes them to HIV risks.
Thus, as we mark and commemorate International Women's Day,men need to celebrate them(women) for pretty a lot of things, but in HIV lenses, it should be their high uptake of HIV prevention, care, and treatment services
However, celebrating them is not enough, but to emulate them so as to fight a winnable battle against HIV/AIDS,a scourge bruising our social and economic circles for four decades now.
Let us test for HIV as early and regularly as possible other shunning it in the guise of being busy and instead choose to depend on our spouses' results.
If negative, we,too, consider ourselves negative;forgetting scenarios of HIV discordant couples.
According to World Health Organisation, Discordant couples are those where one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not, where a couple is defined as two persons in an ongoing sexual relationship and each of these persons is referred to as a “partner” in the relationship.
So,without testing you can not know your re HIV status so as to start drugs or continue protecting yourself, depending on the results.
"Happy women's day 2019"
Moses Muwulya a Health journalist and communications Officer for
Kitovu Mobile AIDS Organisation, a faith based AIDS organisation under Masaka Diocese.
But she always refers to his death as suicidal. Reason? Because much as he knew they were HIV positive,she he vehemently refused to enroll on treatment; with the inception of Anti Retrial Viral Drugs,HIV is no more a death sentence.
But in contrast,Allen took courage, accepted the sour fate and started drugs;adhered to it,and as she speaks,her viral load is undetectable!
The 33 year old even got married to another man with whom she bore an HIV free baby,thanks to Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMCT)
Allen's husband adds a figure to the huge list of men who prematurely succumb to HIV/AIDS related diseases because of their low uptake of test,treatment, and adherence to drugs. At a micro level,a look at Kitovu Mobile's 2018 ARV adherence data, from 150 adult women had good adherence compared to the 80 men.
This will still be reflected in low Viral Load Suppression (VLS) prevalence. VLS is when an HIV positive is virus is not detected; this stems from good drug adherence
Nationally,The prevalence of VLS among all HIV-positive adults aged 15 to 64 in Uganda is 59.6%: 62.9% among females and 53.6% among males,as indicated in the The Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA), a household-based national survey, that was conducted from August 2016 to March 2017 to assess
the progress of Uganda’s national HIV response. UPHIA offered household-based HIV counseling and testing.
The ill fate of men's low uptake is seen in high HIV/AID mortalities,where more men succumb HIV related deaths compared to women as dislcosed by Uganda Aids Commission,despite HIV prevalence is higher among the latter.
This makes Uganda lose productive labour force, of which is not easily replaced like medical doctors
As Dr Steven Watiti,an HIV/AIDS activist noted,It hurts seeing a doctor succumbing to AIDS because he refused to take test,or take drugs consistently,yet he knows that the country has chronic shortage of Doctors.
It also quickens families' vulnerability,after death of bread winners. This robes children of their right to education and other basic needs.
Some orphans are fortunate that Kitovu Mobile, provides school fees and makes types realise their dreams, but majority have their dreams shuttered, storming streets for survival as the girls chose to engage in commercial sex and early marriages which exposes them to HIV risks.
Thus, as we mark and commemorate International Women's Day,men need to celebrate them(women) for pretty a lot of things, but in HIV lenses, it should be their high uptake of HIV prevention, care, and treatment services
However, celebrating them is not enough, but to emulate them so as to fight a winnable battle against HIV/AIDS,a scourge bruising our social and economic circles for four decades now.
Let us test for HIV as early and regularly as possible other shunning it in the guise of being busy and instead choose to depend on our spouses' results.
If negative, we,too, consider ourselves negative;forgetting scenarios of HIV discordant couples.
According to World Health Organisation, Discordant couples are those where one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not, where a couple is defined as two persons in an ongoing sexual relationship and each of these persons is referred to as a “partner” in the relationship.
So,without testing you can not know your re HIV status so as to start drugs or continue protecting yourself, depending on the results.
"Happy women's day 2019"
Moses Muwulya a Health journalist and communications Officer for
Kitovu Mobile AIDS Organisation, a faith based AIDS organisation under Masaka Diocese.
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