Friday, November 08, 2013

In rare move, Uganda leader publicly tests for HIV, urges nation to follow

Today, Uganda’s president made the decision to publically get tested for HIV to encourage the people that were untested to do the same. This was interesting due to the fact that no official leaders have been tested publically despite the fact that health officials have made the suggestion. The goal is to test fifteen million people by the end of 2014. The president was tested publically to help them reach that difficult goal. According to health officials in Uganda, more married couples are ending up with AIDs due to the fact that they have secrete partners. Getting tested is an important step to preventing further infections and decreasing the number of infected people. In the past, Uganda had the reputation for putting the ABC policy in place which meant Abstain, be faithful, or use condoms. Due to the increase of people who have HIV, Uganda is focusing more on the treatment rather than the prevention of HIV.
        In the world today, there are so many people that don’t know their status when it comes to getting tested for HIV/AIDS. When I saw that more married couples are found with AIDS it was a shock to me because in America, Secret partners are not acceptable. The fact that a leader publically got tested was a way for him to encourage the people in Uganda to find out their status. In any society, the people usually follow in the footsteps of famous people. When Beyonce cut her hair off, many girls followed behind her. When the leader got tested today publically, it was intended to have that same effect that Beyonce’s hair cut did. If the people know that a politically leader that is admired is getting tested, they will follow suite and find out their status as well. This method was done with the hopes that the percentage of those that are already infected with AID/HIV would ultimately decrease. Another hope was that the number of people in Uganda that didn’t know their status would feel motivated to get tested.

11/08/13
2:08

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