One in every 20 couples living together are HIV discordant, meaning that one partner is HIV positive and the other is not. Discordance would be a latent tool in the fight against the spread of the epidemic; especially when couples know theirs and each other’s status, because then, the negative partner can be helped to remain negative.

However, reports from the Ministry of Health show that around 90 per cent of men and women in Uganda do not know the HIV status of their sexual partners. “Only about 20-25 per cent of Ugandans have ever tested for HIV and received the results, and only about 10-12 per cent have done so in the last 12 months,” Dr Stephen Malinga, the Minister of Health, explains.

If Ugandans could first, be encouraged to go for HIV testing and then, going with their partners for the tests, discordance would be a condition exploitable in favour of controlling new infection rates.

Against this background, the Ministry of Health is launching the “Go Together, Know Together”- Couple HIV counselling & testing campaign, with an aim of increasing the level of HIV/Aids risk perception among couples. It is hoped that the campaign will encourage couples to discuss HIV, go for counselling and testing, adopt and maintain positive health practices, encourage HIV status disclosure among sexual partners and link HIV positive couple members to treatment, care and support.

To flag off the campaign, the ministry and partners in the campaign have organised a free public event they have dabbed “March to the Same Beat”, slated for September 26 at the Kyadondo Rugby Grounds, Kampala.

“My wife and I will be the first couple to test for HIV/Aids during this event to bear the torch for this campaign to the entire nation,” Dr Malinga says.
Other than free HIV testing and counselling and peer education, the event will be a fun affair with interactive game contests, couples karaoke, and performances by drama groups and artistes like Bobi Wine, Bebe Cool, Cindy, Henry Tigan, Hilderman among others.

Couples that test and learn their HIV status together will be rewarded with prizes ranging from gift hampers, movie tickets, dinner for two at the 7 Hills Revolving Restaurant, spa treatments at Serena Hotel, massages at Golden Lily, Shoprite shopping gift vouchers, meals for two at Lotus Mexicana, New York Kitchen and Crocodile, and phones from Simba Telecom. Gates open at 8.30a.m

The project will be implemented by AIDS Information Centre, UHSP,and other partners

Adopted from Monitor Newspaper