KAMPALA – The Ministry of Health has launched a new HIV/AIDS survey that is intended to capture latest data on the prevalence of the disease that is currently said to be causing 23,000 deaths annually.
Dr Joshua Musinguzi, the head of the HIV/Aids programme at Ministry of Health, said the survey will strengthen planning for the disease.
The idea is to get good quality data that can help us to understand where we are in regards to epidemic but also what has been the progress since the last time we counted,” Dr Musinguzi said at the launch of the training of interviewers and other field workers ahead of the survey in Kampala on Monday.
The Uganda Population HIV Indicator Assessment (UPHIA) survey is expected to begin in January 2020.
Dr Musinguzi said the last national survey was carried out in 2016 and may not be relevant now.
He said survey that will be conducted in 135 districts and will involve people aged 15 years and above..
Dr Henry Mwebesa, the acting Director-General of Health Services, urged men to embrace the survey.
“There is a big problem among men who don’t want to test. We realised that men are very big cowards, surprisingly when you talk about testing for HIV and starting treatment you will get a good number of ladies but when you tell men they say, you see, I will come tomorrow, I tested the other time,” Dr Mwebesa said.
He also urged field workers not tolerate any sort of politics during the exercise.
“These Members of Parliament, they should not associate with you and claim they are the ones who have brought you, please tell them to keep away because normally what they do they usually jump on each and anything. When we are distributing nets they say we have brought you nets they might even tell you, I am the one who has brought you this one,” Dr Mwebesa said.
