THE health ministry has launched a national campaign encouraging couples to test for HIV together. The campaign is dubbed ‘Go Together Know Together Couple HIV Counselling and Testing.’

It follows research findings from the 2004/2005 Uganda sero-surveys that showed a high incidence of HIV among married couples.

Dr. Sam Zaramba, the director general of health services, launched the campaign at the health ministry headquarters in Kampala on Wednesday.

He said over 6% of married and cohabiting couples are estimated to be HIV- positive, compared to less than 2% of those who are not married.

According to the Mode of Transmission Study, 43% of new HIV infections in Uganda occur among married people and 46% in people involved in multiple sexual relationships.

The public launch was held on Saturday at the Kyadondo Rugby Grounds. It attracted hundreds of couples.

Zainab Akol, the HIV/AIDS programme manager at the ministry, explained that the campaign aims at encouraging couples to discuss HIV/AIDS related issues, go for counselling and testing together, maintain positive health practices and encourage HIV status disclosure.

Akol noted that previous campaigns targeted mainly young people.

Raymond Byaruhanga, the director of the Aids Information Centre, disclosed that the campaign will initially run for six months in eight districts. The districts are Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Soroti, Lira, Arua, Mbarara and Kabale.

“There are plans to extend the campaign to other parts of the country and to provide free counselling and testing services to couples in additional districts,” Byaruhanga said.

He said it was important for couples to know their status so that they can plan on how to stay uninfected, learn how to prevent infecting the negative partner and support each other if they both test HIV-positive.

The campaign is sponsored by the health ministry, the AIDS Information Centre, the Health Communication Partner ship and USAID.

By 6PM local time 200 couples had tested at the AIC stall

Additional information from New Vision News Paper