By Kakomo Jumah
Preliminary results of the 2020 – 2021 Uganda population based HIV impact assessment indicate that the current prevalence of HIV among adults aged 15 – 49 years in uganda is 5.5%,7.1% among women and 3.8% among men showing a slight decrease from 6% in UPHIA 2016 – 2017 which was 7.5% among women and 4.3% among men .
UPHIA 2020 is a nation wide survey that was conducted to provide estimates HIV incidents,HIV prevalence,viral load surppresion and other important HIV AIDS programe indicators.
The data was collected in all regions of the country from a sample of house holds that are representative of the Ugandan population.
This survey was conducted between February 2020 – March 2020 and was paused due to Covid 19 measurers but resumed again in October 2020 and completed in February 2021.
Now according to the ministry of health,the results of the entire UPHIA 2020 survey indicate that the current prevalence of HIV among adults in uganda aged 15 years and older HIV prevalence was 5.8%,7.2% among women and 4.3% among men showing 1.3 million adults living with HIV AIDS in uganda.
The prevalence of HIV in adults 15 years and above was higher in urban areas at 7.1% than in rural areas at 5.2%.
According to minister of health Aceng says the prevalence was lowest in the age group of 15-19,was highest in the age group of 45-49 at 11.1% and Among 50-54 age group the percentage was 13.6%.
The survey reported continued higher HIV prevalence in young women than young men as it was three times higher among women at 2.9% compared to men at 0.8%.
Also according to survey the viral load suppression was highest among older adults 93.5% among HIV infected women aged 45-54 years, and 91.0% among HIV infected men aged 55-64 years.
Minister adds that the preliminary results of the survey show encouragingvprogress towards the achievement of the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets,particularly among women.
Mean while the survey found that the prevalence of male circumcision was highest among young people aged 15-24 years at 63%.
