Cross generational sex is sighted as a leading cause of HIV infections among young girls in Uganda.

At least 570 young girls are infected with HIV in Uganda according to the latest findings by a United Nations report.

The findings is a set back to the country’s efforts to curb the scourge that has claimed thousands of lives since it was first discovered in the early 80’s.

It is also more scaring as the report points out that the most infected group with HIV is that of girls especially between the ages of 15-24 years.

“Go look at those posh vehicles parked at girls university hostels, those men are not picking or visiting their daughters but they are picking other people’s daughters,” said Dr Zepher Ranyabokabo from Ministry of Health who attributed this trend to cross-generational sex and the use of money to lure unsuspecting young naïve girls.

Ranyabokabo was speaking during a dissemination conference on the current prevalence HIV rate hosted by Alliance of African Mayors’ Initiative for Community Action on Aids at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala yesterday. The conference was intended to draw strategies to improve urban health, end cholera and HIV/Aids pandemic by 2030.

“In Africa, Uganda is second to South Africa, where at least 2,363 get infected with HIV every week, compared to 468 for Kenya, 491 for Tanzania and only 25 for Rwanda,” says the UNAIDS report dated 2013, which also quotes the 2014 US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.

The report put teenage girls in the group of key populations where HIV prevalence is highest. The group was in the past dominated by sex workers, fishermen, long distance truck drivers and boda boda cyclists.

Girls from the age of 20-22 have a 7.1 per cent prevalence rate, while boys of the same age have a significantly lower prevalence rate at 2.8 per cent. It says, between the ages of 23 and 24 years, girls’ prevalence rate remains significantly high at 7 per cent more than that of boys of the same age bracket.

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The report that was launched by the Uganda AIDS Commissions in Kampala shows that the increasing infections is due to the men who do not like to use protective measures when having sex with their non permanent partners or prostitutes.

Dr. Zainabu Akol says that when conducting the research they found that prostitutes move with condoms but men decline to use those condoms.

Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli, the director of Uganda AIDS commission says that the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among the prostitutes in Uganda now stands at about 37 percent.

Dr. Apuuli has advised couples to remain faithful and the pregnant women to always take HIV tests such that if they test positive the children are protected from mother to child HIV infections.

Ultimate Media

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