Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - December 4, 2001
Barbara Bitangaro
"Although the male to female ratio of AIDS cases overall is 1 to 1, there are slightly more women reported with AIDS in the younger age group," Dr Joshua Musinguzi, an epidemiologist with the Ministry of Health said.
"It is around 35 years of age that men become sexually active," he added. Turning to factors that influence HIV/AIDS differences between young men and girls, the doctor said that apart from biological make up, girls mature earlier than boys.
"Young women at that age have genitals that are not ready for sex. So the opportunity for infection is high compared to young men," Musinguzi said.
He said other reasons for the high prevalence of AIDS cases were that girls at 19 are seen as women and are married off early in many Ugandan cultures. There are also economic factors like sugar daddies, less access to jobs, property and money.
"Overall, women are less likely to have access to knowledge and information, education, property and interventions like condoms.
Women also have less bargaining power when it comes to sex and may not be able to get condoms," he said.
"It is because of these factors including the economic factors that prostitutes in Uganda have 28% burden of HIV, the highest in any single group, he said. Musinguzi added: "Our interventions must focus more on these issues. There must be interventions to empower women." He also said that education of the girl-child was of paramount importance.
Dr Samuel Okware, commissioner community health services (community health) called for the expansion of education in order to reduce the infection rates.
"Educating girls up to primary level showed that it was associated with reduced child mortality and morbidity (sickness). Government is taking a correct line to expand Universal Primary Education and then later to secondary level," Okware said.
Children born to mothers with no education, by far, suffer the highest mortality.
Educating mothers to primary level reduces the overall under-five mortality by 13% and child mortality by 20% over that for women with no education.
At higher levels of education the effect is even more dramatic, the Uganda Demographic Health Survey 1995 reported.
Musinguzi said although there had been a decline in prevalence of HIV in the population, the rates were still high and factors that affect the rates need to be seriously addressed.
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