HIV This Week

Slutkin G, Okware S, Naamara W, Sutherland D, Flanagan D, Carael M, Blas E, Delay P et al. How Uganda Reversed Its HIV Epidemic. AIDS Behav 2006 Jul 21[Epub ahead of print]

http://www.springerlink.com/media/f0llqlwqrlp1f0guubex/contributions/7/0/2/4/7024v857p67q0220.pdf

Slutkin and colleagues focus on Uganda as one of only two countries in the world that has successfully reversed the course of its HIV epidemic. There remains much controversy about how Uganda's HIV prevalence declined in the 1990s. The authors describe the prevention programmes and activities that were implemented in Uganda during critical years in its HIV epidemic, 1987-1994. Multiple resources were aggregated to fuel HV prevention campaigns at multiple levels to a far greater degree than in neighbouring countries. The authors conclude that the reversed direction of the HIV epidemic in Uganda was the direct result of these interventions and that other low- and middle-income countries could similarly prevent or reverse the escalation of HIV epidemics with greater availability of HIV prevention resources, and well designed programmes that take efforts to a critical breadth and depth of effort.