UGANDA: Accurate AIDS figures through random testing

JOHANNESBURG, 12 Nov 2003 (PLUSNEWS) - By randomly selecting people for testing, Uganda hopes to gather more accurate percentages of the number of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The AIDS Control Programme said the tests would be conducted after claims by critics that Uganda's current HIV figures were not accurate, as they were only obtained from pregnant women and not the general population.

Research shows that Uganda has reduced its HIV infection rates from over 14 percent to below 8 percent over the last decade.

Dr Joshua Musinguzi, a senior medical officer in the AIDS Control Programme, told the local newspaper New Vision that a confidential door-to-door survey would also test respondents for Syphilis, Herpes Simplex Virus-2, and Hepatitis B.

Musinguzi confirmed that the protocol for the exercise, scheduled to take place between March and June 2004, had been finalised and would be handed over to the Institutional Review Board for assessment of the science and ethics of the proposal.

[ENDS]