The Ministry of Health (MOH) is concerned that a high and rising number of children living with HIV are dropping out of care or have their viral load levels rising immediately after they enrol in school.
Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry said up to 28 per cent of children who are HIV positive are not on treatment despite the policy to enrol anyone who tests positive on treatment immediately.
Currently, 80,000 children are estimated to be living with HIV. However, according to MOH figures, only 57, 771 were enrolled on treatment by the end of last year. In addition, 5900 children were newly infected last year.
Dr Awine says this is dangerous considering that the country has set an ambitious target to end AIDs among this group by 2030 and has adopted several interventions to control mother-to-child transmission of the virus. She was speaking at the national launch of the Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children by 2030 on Thursday,
According to Dr Atwine, as a matter of urgency, the health ministry has scheduled a meeting with the ministries of Education and Gender to come up with a way forward considering that on her recent spot check on hospitals in Northern Uganda, they found a high number of pregnant teenage girls. This shows how high the risk of HIV infection among girls aged twelve to fifteen is in the area.
Dr Joshua Musinguzi, the AIDs Control Programme Manager, explains that their biggest focus now is to ensure that they stop new infections among young women as these are the main reasons why they still record new infections among children.
He says they currently are testing 81 per cent of the children born by HIV-positive mothers through their Early Infant Diagnosis programme. Records show that 79 per cent of the children who get exposed to the virus at birth test positive at the end of the 18-month follow-up. Meanwhile, 3800 children aged zero to 14 died of AIDS last year.
Dr Dan Byamukama says this grim picture is set to change with the national launch of the alliance as they are re-strategizing to ensure more gains are made in the remaining seven years. He says most of the challenges are related to equity.
For him, children stop taking their medicines properly when they start school partly because of stigma.
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