Published on 02/12/2024
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged Ugandans to take charge of their health by actively preventing HIV/AIDS. He emphasized that the virus not only endangers lives but also diminishes individual potential and national productivity. “Protecting yourself is protecting Uganda’s future,” he stated.
“There are certain things that you cannot do when you are infected. Like in the army, we discovered that when somebody over-exerts himself with the virus, it can cause a problem. Therefore, don’t say let me get infected since the drugs are available and I will live a normal life. You will not die but you will have deducted on your capacity,” he said.
The President made the remarks today during the World AIDS Day commemoration held at Bukungu Primary School, Bukungu Town Council, Buyende District.
The commemoration ran under the theme: “Accelerating Interventions to End HIV/AIDS by 2030”.
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President Museveni explained that AIDS is really a problem caused by indiscipline.
“When we analyzed when it was threatening us, we found that AIDS was just from three points. Number one was prostitution, number two was blood transfusion before we checked the blood of the givers, then number three was from mother to child transmission in the womb,” he said.
“But to show that it’s not really a serious disease, when you take the mother to child transmission, even without any intervention, we found out that only 30 percent would pass from mother to child even if the mother had the virus. Initially we were worried that it was going through mosquito bites and so on. But then we found that it was not possible. So, we closed the route of blood transfusion. The one for mother to child we also closed it; because the technology which would stop transmission from mother to child became available.”
The President further cautioned Ugandans against prostitution, saying that it’s the main cause of HIV/AIDS infections.
“You people please don’t keep playing around with this problem. Yes, the drugs are there to suppress the virus, but it’s not eliminated. But the advantage we are looking for in suppressing the virus is that when it is much suppressed, the virus doesn’t spread so much,” he advised.
“Please stop this indiscipline. All Ugandans should stop living a risky life. You hear the statistics that in the whole world there are 39 million people with the virus. People in the whole world are like 7 billion. Now out of the 39 million, 1.4 million are in Uganda, that is a high figure. Why should this be the case?” he wondered.
Furthermore, the President advised that when someone tests HIV positive, he/she should start taking drugs as prescribed by health practitioners so that they are able to stay alive and healthy.
“Although it’s not what I prefer for you, it’s better than dying because if you live longer, you will be able to look after your children so by the time you leave this world, they are in a better position. You can work, make a contribution and as you have heard, you are less infectious if the viral load is suppressed. Therefore, from a national point of view, it’s good because it will stop you from spreading the virus more aggressively.”
President Museveni also lauded the Ugandan researchers who are moving in the right direction to make a vaccine for HIV/AIDS.
“There are even our children who are threatening to treat AIDS completely by killing the virus. I’m going to support and fund them fully,” he said.
“As we are still struggling with the ARVs, our people have found a medicine where you take one injection every two months instead of taking tablets every day. I want to thank our scientists for really doing a good job.”
On the other hand, President Museveni implored the people of Busoga to create wealth through commercial agriculture with “ekibaro”.
“From 1996, we talked about the four acres model. That time we advised you that if you have four acres, put one acre under coffee, in the second acre grow fruits, third acre for pasture for dairy farming, then in the fourth acre grow food crops. In the backyard do piggery and poultry and those near the swamps, do fish farming,” the President noted.
“Fish farming can give you more money than rice farming which you are doing now. These seven activities are the ones we recommended to you in the 1996 Manifesto of the NRM. Recently, the Busoga MPs led by Rt. Hon. Kadaga and Kyakulaga Bwino, learning from the good example from Kalagala, recommended that we add palm oil to the seven activities.”
President Museveni also warned the locals against misusing and underutilizing land.
“The problem is that you are now misusing and underutilizing the land. On the dry land, people are growing food but there’s no irrigation. In 1967, when I was going to University in Dares-Salaam, I used to pass via Madhvani and he had already started irrigating the sugarcane. Now you don’t see any irrigation anywhere. That means that dry land is underutilized,” he said.
“Then when you go into the wetlands, you plant rice. You get very little from rice. The analysis we have done in Limoto a farmer can get Shs80m from an acre accommodating fishponds. We should use the wetlands in a proper way.”
On the planned nuclear power plant in Buyende, President Museveni noted that Uganda needs the project since it will increase the electricity power in the country.
“It is very important for the whole country because we have been using the hydro power but the different falls along the Nile will give us a total of 10,000 megawatts. This one here will be 8,000 megawatts. In otherwards, all the dams we have will not have as much electricity power as this nuclear plant. It is very important for Uganda but also for this area,” he urged.
“In order to fully benefit this area, we can plan on whether we put up some industrial parks and so on. That’s how even Jinja came up with a small dam of Nalubaale.”
President Museveni also assured the fishing communities in Buyende that the government will deal with all the challenges affecting them.
“We brought soldiers because there was a crisis on the lake. The lakes were being destroyed. You could no longer get any big fish. My question has been, who are the indigenous fishermen so that we can rely on them to guard the lake and use it in a planned way? This is what I want to discuss with the elders because the lake belongs to us all,” he said.
“If we work on those issues such as illegal fishing, we shall take the soldiers off the lakes. If they commit crimes on the lakes, report and we arrest them.”
Additionally, President Museveni urged Ugandans to utilise their powers given to them by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government to hold their leaders accountable for effective service delivery.
The Vice President, H.E Jessica Alupo commended President Museveni for his tireless efforts in guiding the country and supporting the interventions geared towards the health and the welfare of all the people of Uganda.
“Your concerted effort in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda and in the region cannot be overemphasized,” she said.
The 1st Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs, Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga requested the government to be clear on the nuclear power project in the area so that they get to know the benefits of the project towards the locals and the country at large.
The Minister for Presidency, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda revealed that with President Museveni’s direct support and interventions, Uganda has managed to make significant progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“In the late 1980s and early 1990s, HIV prevalence was high at 18 percent in the general population. It is now at 5.1 percent,” she noted.
“There are approximately 1.4 million people living with HIV and over 1.2 million of these are on treatment. In 2023 alone, 38,000 new HIV infections were registered, and 20,000 AIDS related deaths were recorded. Of the new HIV infections, a high proportion are adolescent girls and young women.”
Hon. Babalanda also applauded the collaboration between Uganda AIDS Commission, Ministry of Health and UNAIDS that enabled the country to generate a subnational data which is useful in helping the country to prioritize HIV prevention interventions and behavioral change campaigns.
The Minister also assured President Museveni that the global HIV/AIDS estimates show that Uganda is on the right track to achieve its target even though the burden remains big.
“I take this opportunity to appreciate you, Your Excellency, for your exemplary leadership and unwavering support you have offered to the National HIV/AIDS responses over the years,” she said.
The Minister also recognised the efforts of the government of Uganda in fighting poverty through various programs like the Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga.
“Sir, being financially empowered not only increases household income but it also helps to reduce vulnerabilities especially of adolescent girls and young women in HIV infections. Your Excellency, you have always emphasized that health is wealth, I therefore urge Ugandans to test for HIV and know their status, if you test positive, treatment is available in all government facilities.”
The Director General of Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), Dr. Nelson Musoba acknowledged President Museveni’s commitment and consistent stewardship to the fight against HIV/AIDS ever since he came to power.
“On behalf of all Ugandans, I thank you for the work you are doing now in driving the country toward industrialization and improving household incomes. All this ultimately impacts public health and reduction in new HIV infections,” Dr. Musoba said.
Dr. Musoba also revealed that overall, there has been a reduction in new HIV infections by 45 percent from 68,000 infections annually in 2017 to 38,000 by December 2023.
“By December 2023, we had 38,000 new HIV infections. It means within a period of 12 months, that’s the number of people who became infected,” he said.
“15,000 of these were young people between the age of 15 to 24 years. We have 4700 children between the ages of 0-14. While we have the technology to stop babies from getting HIV, we still have quite a number that is still getting the virus.”
The event was also attended by the 3rd Deputy Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Rukia Nakadama, Ministers, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Members of Parliament, among other dignitaries.
