Moving Uganda from 74:89:60 to 90:90:90 Messaging:

Uganda can move from 74% who are aware of their HIV status:89% on HIV treatment:60% virally suppressed to 90:90:90 target by 2020. Uganda has a comprehensive “Test-and-Start” plan.  By 2017, Uganda Adolescent girls and young women were a poster example of a demography facing issues including gender-based violence (including sexual abuse) and a lack of access to education, health services, social protection and information about how they cope with these inequities and injustices. Young Ugandan women who had experienced intimate partner violence were 50% and were more likely to have acquired HIV than women who had not experienced violence. The political, social, economical and cultural infrastructure allowing adolescent girls and young women to be exploited is also used to abuse other marginalized communities. Ravages of war exacerbate HIV. Gender-specific vulnerabilities, cultural economic power imbalances between men and women in Uganda, were exacerbated in the context of war and return migration as shown by the Cango Lyec (Healing the Elephant) Project. Unrest and instability in any community means a likelihood of beneficiaries HIV care services regularly missing doses. In a country where 1.4 million people are living with HIV, women and young women in particular are disproportionately affected. Proper information should be provided and at the same time, all logistical support necessary for  prevention and care should be accessible. As we move toward 2020, the groups we shall watch out for, with reports showing indicators for optimal ARV adherence and eventual viral suppression are: adolescent girls, young women, sex workers, men-who-have-sex-with-men, people who inject drugs (PWID) and fishing communities. Messaging should combine differentiated services, encourage optimal ARV adherence and human rights upholding.  One indicator to look out for is increasing knowledge of HIV status through HIV testing and counselling (HTC) is a key route to tackle Uganda’s political-social-economical-cultural infrastructural HIV epidemic.