The Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Kasese, has challenged orgnisations dealing with HIV/AIDS to fight stigma, rejection and discrimination that is being inflicted on people living with the disease."HIV/AIDS should be fought with mercy, love and pity for the infected and affected persons," he said.
Isingoma was recently closing a two-day HIV/AIDS annual partnership forum organised by Kasese district and funded by the Ministry of Local Government in conjunction with the Uganda AIDS Commission. The partnership forum took place at Virina Gardens in Kasese town and drew participants from local government, the civil society and the private sector.
Isingoma challenged the participants to strengthen partnership for service providers to address the scourge of HIV/AIDS. The main facilitator from the Uganda AIDS Commission, who is also the District Health Officer, Kisoro, Dr Assay Ndizihiwe, reported that medical male circumcision reduces the risk of contracting HIV.
"Uncircumcised men are partly responsible for the increasing cases of cervical cancer among women. According to the Kasese Distinct HIV/AIDS Focal Person, John Thawite, the HIV/AIDS prevalence in Kasese district stands at 11.2% from testing sites in the district.
Thawite said though Kasese belongs to the western region whose general prevalence is 6.9%, there is need for a district-specific sero-prevalence survey to ascertain the specifics of the HIV infections. He said the forum was organised to strengthen partnership in the fight against the pandemic adding that the fight was the responsibility of every stakeholder regardless of region, race, sex, political or religious inclination.
No comments:
Post a Comment