Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) have called upon the public to increase the usage of condoms and adapt to other behavioral changes in order to combat the increased number of HIV/AIDS infections.

The call was made by Dr. Vincent Bagambe, the Director of Planning and Strategic Information at UAC, during the National HIV/AIDS Symposium, which started on November 14, 2023.

“There is a need for behavioral change because a study has found out that the use of condoms as an HIV preventive measure has dropped to 141 million condoms as compared to last year, when 200 million condoms were used,” Bagambe noted.

Bagambe said adolescent girls and young women are more at risk of infection because of the vulnerabilities related to lack of employment, lack of money, being marginalized by society, and gender-based violence.

He added that, as UAC, they need to see a free HIV community in Uganda as the long-term goal and a reduction in new HIV cases.

“We want to see zero new HIV infections; let’s have zero new HIV-related deaths and also zero stigma and discrimination. We hope to achieve all these by 2030,” Bagambe said.

Dr. Dan Byamukama, the Head of HIV Prevention at UAC, said that they have discovered that the highest number of new HIV infections are occurring among formally married men and women, as well as university students.

On November 6, 2023, Dr. Steve Asiimwe, an HIV Prevention Officer at UAC, revealed that Mbarara District has, for the last 3 years, registered 1,789 new HIV infections, taking precedence in the country as the leading district with infected persons.