Off the wire
• Alcohol adverts shown once a minute at Euro 2016  • Iraq's federal court nullifies two controversial parliament sessions  • Cameron wants "constructive" exit process with EU  • China Exclusive: China's first regional jet starts commercial operation  • Reform fundamental driving force for China's economy: premier  • Roundup: Kenya bets on ICT to hasten agriculture modernization  • S. African Constitutional Court accepts report on Nkandla payment  • China, ROK pledge to strengthen relations  • New rules to hold Party officials accountable for breach of duty  • Two more bodies of CASA aircraft crew found: ministry  
You are here: 　 Home

UNAIDS cautions Uganda on HIV/AIDS funding

Xinhua, June 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN AIDS program (UNAIDS) on Tuesday urged Uganda to renew its commitment towards funding the HIV/AIDs fight, noting that the success so far achieved is likely to be reversed if no action is taken.

Musa Bungundu, the outgoing Country Director UNAIDS told reporters that globally there is a reduction in funding of the HIV fight, noting that it is now upon the individual countries to increase funding towards the fight.

"For Uganda to sustain its impact on the fight against HIV/AIDS, it must allocate more resources so that it compliments much more to what the donors are providing," he said without giving figures.

Bungundu, who was bidding farewell at the end of his tour of duty, said besides the urgency for Uganda to increase funding towards HIV/AIDS fight, accountability of the available resources must be improved.

He said there are incidents of where millions of shillings meant for the fight against the pandemic are unaccounted for.

"The available resources must be allocated and used in a timely manner. Buying drugs and allowing them to expire should be a crime," he said.

Uganda is globally acknowledged for its fight against HIV/AIDS among the heavily burdened countries.

Bungundu said indicative figures of an ongoing survey show that the country's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is likely to drop to four percent from the current 7.3 percent

Figures by the Uganda Aids Commission, a government agency tasked to fight the pandemic show that between 2011 and 2015, Uganda managed to achieve 86 percent reduction of all new HIV infections.

The number of new HIV infections fell to 83,000 by December 2015 from 162,000 in 2011.

This was on account of increased financing of HIV/AIDS activities and political commitment towards the fight against the scourge. Endit