Munoonye (find the child HIV testing campaign) launched to halt HIV spread

13 April 2024, 1:58 pm

By Byamukama Alozious

Ministry of Health has launched a programme named “Munoonye (find the child HIV testing campaign’” for children and adolescents with the aim of calming down HIV viral in Uganda.

Speaking at the launch, the permanent secretary Diana Atwine said the program is a community based initiative where the health workers together with other agents will go to community and sensitize the adolescents and patients of HIV.

“We are looking for 10,000 children who live with HIV and we want them to take medicine to treat HIV as soon as possible because HIV medicine or antiretroviral therapy if taken as prescribed will reduce the amount of HIV viral load in the body which will keep the immunity strong,” she said

Dr. Atwine added that the Ministry of Education has to come on board because most of the children are in schools. She also pointed out that all mothers who are pregnant must get HIV testing so as to they get to know their status through which the babies will be protected .

In Uganda, at least 60,000 children under 0-19 years living with HIV are getting treatment from different health facilities and 10,000 children living with HIV are nowhere in the system and it’s the reasons for the six months campaign which has started today.

Dr. Eleanor Namusole, Department of Aids Control Program at the Ministry of Health said the campaign is going to run in Northern, Mid-Western and Central Uganda because the areas have got a high numbers of cases.

“We are committed to protecting our children and adolescents who live with HIV,” she said. She added that at least the aim is to increase at the uptake of ART.

“We are facing stigma among the elite class which is lead casing to poor adherence for our children,” Dr. Steven Watiti, former head of NAFOPHANU cried out.

He says the elite class which includes lawyers and professors among others are resisting their children to get the HIV test. The healthy 70-year-old man who has lived with HIV since the 90s acknowledges that there is a need for a combined effort to stop patient stigma especially to children.

Most stigma against the people living with HIV is coming from social media. Among the survivors of this stigma is popular HIV activist Gloria Nawanga who says many people backbite her social media posts.

“I am a strong advocate on HIV but I still face stigma from my social media platforms, what about the starter,” she said. She appealed to the Ministry of Health to work close with Equal Opportunities Commission to come with a policy on eradication stigma among patients.

She hopes that this campaign will truly bring out that the 10,000 children who live with without treatment.

“It doesn’t make me feel happy seeing children with HIV not getting treatment.”

Globally, two million children with HIV have no treatment, while Africa has about 600,000 cases and Uganda contributes to 100,000 cases, according to UNAIDS 2023.