User:InnocentSplit/HIV/AIDS in Uganda

Some reports suggest that the decline in AIDS prevalence in Uganda was due to monogamy and abstinence, rather than condom use. According to Edward C. Green, a medical anthropologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, the promotion of fidelity to one's partner and abstinence were the most important factors in Uganda's success because they disrupted the widespread practice of having multiple concurrent sexual partners. Research found that in rural Uganda, the educational messaging regarding condom use was often not effective. In fact, it was found that twenty-three percent of adolescents surveyed did not even know about condoms. A 2004 study published in the journal Science also concluded that abstinence among young people and monogamy, rather than condom use, contributed to the decline of AIDS in Uganda.

In the 1990s there had been limited access to treatment in the form of anti-retrovirals for those who are HIV positive. As access to anti-retrovirals increased in Uganda, however, studies began to investigate the conflicting social influences on a woman's desire to continue having children. It was found that while some women felt social obligated to continue reproducing in order to meet a respectable number of offspring, others felt societal taboo and pressure as parents with HIV were thought to be bearing orphans. Through the combined effort of US PEPFAR, the government of Uganda, and international agencies (Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Global Fund, UNITAID) this has improved. The country's HIV-AIDS campaign focuses solely on prevention rather than cure, and that prevention is of questionable success.

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