Uganda is a landlocked country on the equator in East Africa with an estimated population of 25.6 million people. It gained independence from British rule in 1962. In the 1970s and the early 1980s the country suffered two bloody dictatorial regimes and two wars. In 1986 Yoweri Museveni became president and introduced democratic and economic reforms. Uganda is predominantly rural, with only 15 percent of the population living in urban settings. Kampala is Uganda’s capital and largest city. Life expectancy is 44.9 years. Uganda is the Africa our delegation had come to see. Uganda is truly a developing country, where clean and safe water is rare, malaria-bearing mosquitoes plentiful, and decent hotels few and far in between. If HIV/AIDS could be impacted through the provision of innovative prevention, home-based care and treatment programs in Uganda, it could be impacted across Africa. Uganda is not a rich country, but it has begun to turn its HIV epidemic around.

Uganda is among the hardest hit countries on the continent. The Ministry of Health Surveillance Unit estimates that there were about 1,050,555 people living with HIV/AIDS as of December 2001. In addition, over 940,000 Ugandans are estimated to have died of HIV/AIDS related illnesses since the onset of the epidemic in the country. At the end of 2001 following a history of declining trends, the national HIV prevalence rate was estimated at an average of 6.5% of the total Ugandan population. That is down from a national average of 18 percent with about 30 percent in the worst hit areas of the country in the early 1990s.

HIV/AIDS in Uganda has affected both rural and urban dwellers, adults and children, and cuts across all regions and occupational groups in the country albeit with varying magnitude. HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality has negatively affected development initiatives at individual, household, community sector. It is expected that HIV will also have a devastating impact ultimately at a national level as individual and household savings are depleted to obtain care for the sick at the same time the income from affected adults is greatly reduced as they attend to the sick. While an estimated 157,000 infected Ugandans need ARV, about 10,000 people currently have access to it.

Studies have documented HIV’s impact on Uganda. UNAIDS estimated that there are more than 880,000 children below 14 years who have been orphaned by AIDS, or about 51 percent of all orphans in that age group. Preliminary results from ongoing research studies show that communities perceive orphan care among the greatest burdens of the epidemic.

Embassy of the United States in Kampala, Uganda