Members of Parliament on the Committee on HIV/AIDS say that circumcision has become a catalyst to the infection of the dreaded disease. This has been mentioned in a meeting where the Director-General of Uganda AIDS Commission was appearing before the committee to update the MPs on matters concerning HIV.

The Committee reasoned that Ugandan men are becoming more sexually reckless after being circumcised and that is leading to an increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

During the hearing, the Director-General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Dr Nelson Musoba revealed that Uganda is still among the top 10 African Countries with a high HIV burden.

“50,000 people in Uganda, are getting new HIV/AIDS infections annually,” Dr Musoba says.

The AIDS commission also confirmed that there are about 1.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Of these, 1.2 Million people are on ARVs.

The MPs on the Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS recommended that health Camps should be established during circumcision activities to help men understand HIV/AIDS and how it spreads, and how it can be controlled.

Uganda has been fighting HIV/AIDS for over 30 years and back in the 80s, the national Prevalence was 30%. In 2004, according to UNAIDS’ HIV and AIDS Uganda Country Progress report, the prevalence had gone down to 6.4% but later rose to 7.3% in 2011 maintaining that average until 2013. In 2016, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS was at 6.2% according to the Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment report.