Soroti, 4th August 2015: The 9th Campaign of the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV&AIDS was launched in Teso Sub-region at the Soroti sports grounds. The First Lady of Uganda, Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni, who is also the champion of the eMTCT program in Uganda under the Office of the First Lady was the guest of honour.

In her remarks the First lady thanked partners and government for the efforts put in eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV. She further said that fathers have a strong a role to play in this campaign saying, “if we all became champions, we would ensure that no child is born with HIV anymore.”

Hon Sarah Opendi, the Minister of State for Health in charge of Primary Health Care said that Uganda has made tremendous progress in eMTCT having recorded the highest number of children born with the virus at 30,000 annually but now the number has come down to 9,000. She also called for male involvement in order for HIV to be eliminated completely saying, “Men should be our partners in the fight against HIV”

Mr. Musa Bungudu who represented the United Nations (UN) family at the function acknowledged and appreciated the tremendous progress made in the program. He further said that the presence of Quality Chemicals Limited made the availability of ARVs much easier and asked government to explore such options.

With 125 out 171 health facilities providing EMTCT services, Teso sub-region in Uganda has registered progress with an increase in couple testing by 5%, and linkage to care for HIV positive breastfeeding mothers is  more than 90%. The region also boasts of a Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) rate of below 5% and thus falls within the elimination zone.

The function was well attended by government officials, the UN family, Civil Society Organizations, Implementing Partners, Religious and Cultural leaders, the people of Teso region as well as the media.

Role of World Health Organization

The World Health Organization continues to provide technical support by doing research and availing facts. Further on this, training and scaling up is done to ensure that health workers are up to speed when dealing with HIV & AIDS related issues

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Mwebembezi Edmond, Public Information Officer
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