Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
 |
New Vision (Kampala) - December 3, 2003
Dan Nsalasatta
Over the year there have been efforts from various interventions carried out by government and various stakeholders to address these challenges. According to available statistics, youth living with HIV significantly changed behaviours; however, a restructuring of the intervention is required based on new information from various studies and scientific breakthrough.
As the country marks the world AIDS day, stakeholders are set to conduct a pilot study of the effectiveness of clear intervention among youth living with HIV AIDS. This pilot programme is to be called SUUBI meaning hope in Luganda, which is the mother tongue of the targeted audience in this particular location.
The SUUBI prevention intervention for youth living with HIV/AIDS intends to assist street and slum youths living with HIV /AIDS to protect their own health and reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to others.
The process of disseminating and adopting SUUBI allows for the development of a programme that is culturally appropriate to Ugandan youths. This project will also allow stakeholder to examine how acceptable the intervention is in Uganda.
While the seroprevalence of HIV has declined in Uganda in General, groups that have not been the subject of intensive campaigning have seen their HIV prevalence increase.
The group that SUUBI targets is the HIV positive youth. Due to the nature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda, street and slum youth comprise a significant portion of HIV -Positive youth. Increasing number of AIDS orphans have contributed to the number of children and youth on the streets.
Street and poor slum youth, many of whom engage in early initiation of sex, contribute to the increase in HIV, STDs/STIs, and pregnancy among this group according to UYDEL data of 1999.
This is particularly important when given that heterosexual contact with an infected partner accounts for approximately 75 - 80% of new infections in Uganda. The number of children living in slums has been increasing unabated due to a number of factors, including AIDS, war and poverty.
There are about 997,000 AIDS orphans in Uganda and over 20,000 children are estimated to be living in the slum centres of Kampala. These children comprise especially vulnerable groups, facing issues of substance abuse, violence, unemployment, prostitution, and lack of access to appropriate services.
Many times the youth are unaware of services that are available to them or face unfriendly service providers who are not sensitive to their special needs as dictated by their seroprevalence status. The goal of this project is to develop and pilot test a prevention intervention for youth living with HIV in Uganda.
Conducting the SUUBI pilot study will provide skills to UYDEL staff and other NGOs to intervene in prevention and reduction of transmission risk behaviours of youth living with HIV, including providing them with links to readily accessible youth friendly services in the community.
The proposed project is in collaboration between United States Researchers at the University of California, Los Angels (UCLA) and Ugandan investigators led by Rogers Kasirye, Director of Programmes UYDEL. The proposed project will help to provide new tools for the youth service providers in Uganda to use in their work with HIV positive youth who live in the streets and slums of Uganda.
This will be accomplished by conducting a pilot study that will begin to examine the effectiveness of a secondary prevention intervention called CLEAR which stands for Choosing life: Empowerment - Action - Results, which will be adopted for HIV - positive street and slum youth in Uganda.
In this project, staff members from UYDEL and other NGOs serving street youth, the Uganda AIDS Commission, AIDS control programme, and the Uganda Ministry of Health will work collaboratively with U.S. researchers to adapt the CLEAR intervention to make it culturally appropriate for use with street and slum living with HIV (YLH) in two slum centres in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.
The adapted intervention will be pilot tested to determine if the intervention is accepted by Ugandan youth as well as to determine the intervention's effectiveness with a small sample of youth.
The pilot project will include a total of 100 HIV - positive youth from two slum centres in Kampala. A half of the participants will receive the adapted CLEAR intervention while the other half will serve as the control group and will receive the intervention after their 4 month follow up assessment. Both of the groups will be assessed at baseline and at 4 months. This is a behavioural intervention and will not tackle drugs or medications.
031203
NV031218
Copyright © 2003 - The New Vision. All articles are republished on AEGIS by permission. Material may not be redistributed, posted to any other location, published or used for broadcast without written authorization from Managing Director/Editor-in-chief, The New Vision, P.O. Box 9815, Kampala - Uganda, Tel/fax: 256-41-235221, E-mail: wpike@newvision.co.ug.
AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, iMetrikus, Inc., John M. Lloyd Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2003. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980, 2003. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .