Director Partnership UAC Etii Cautions Youth on HIV

By Patrick Okino

The Director of Partnerships at the Uganda AIDS Commission, Tom Ivan Etii, has cautioned young people against engaging in risky behaviors, warning that HIV/AIDS remains a serious public health concern in Uganda.

Etii said the Uganda AIDS Commission is conducting outreach programs across the country to spread HIV prevention and care messages, particularly targeting young people whom he described as the most vulnerable group.

He emphasized abstinence as one of the key ways young people can protect themselves from HIV infection and remain safe.

The Commission recently engaged students during the National School Championships held at Lira Town College, Sheroma High School, and another school in the West Nile region.

Etii applauded the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth (PIASCY), saying the programme played a major role in protecting young people in earlier years and remains highly relevant today.

The Executive Secretary of the Uganda National Students Association, Cherukut Fred Toskin, said that as Uganda works towards ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, UNSA has continued collaborating with the Uganda AIDS Commission and the Ministry of Education and Sports to combat HIV among learners and teachers.

“As you recall, His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in the early 2000s provided the framework for the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth (PIASCY), which aimed at equipping school-going youth with comprehensive information about HIV and AIDS through sex education to prevent new infections. It worked well, and the country achieved a lot in empowering young people,” Toskin said.

He added that Uganda has made significant progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS since the late 1980s, reducing the prevalence rate from 18 percent to 4.9 percent by 2024. He attributed this success to prevention campaigns targeting young people and communities through the ABC strategy — Abstinence, Being Faithful, and Condom Use for older youth who are out of school.

According to Toskin, by December 2024, about 1,527,238 people were living with HIV in Uganda, while approximately 37,000 people had newly acquired the virus. Around 20,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses during the same period.

He noted that young women are three times more affected by new HIV infections than young men.

Toskin identified high-risk sexual behavior, multiple sexual partners, inconsistent condom use, and transactional sex as some of the major drivers of new HIV infections.

He further explained that in 2017, President Museveni committed to fast-tracking efforts to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat in Uganda by 2030 through five key pillars. These include engaging men in HIV prevention, reducing new infections among adolescent girls and young women, accelerating the implementation of the Test and Treat policy and attainment of the 95-95-95 targets, especially among men and young people, and consolidating gains made in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

He called upon young people to remain focused and avoid risk behavior that may lead them to HIV infection.