East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA - In a bid to ensure that employees of different companies in Uganda go for Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) of HIV/AIDS, different Chief Executive Officers last week participated in VCT activities with an aim of encouraging their workers to do the same.
The VCT activities that were spearheaded by the Federation of Uganda Employers, an employer's umbrella organization for all employers in Uganda, preceded the World Aids Day celebrations that were marked on December 1. Mr. Martin Kasekende, the FUE chairman advised the chief executive officers to intensify HIV/AIDs prevention strategies at workplaces to curb the scourge.
He said HIV/AIDS is still impacting on many businesses and continues to affect the most productive working populations of 15 to 49 years which is key to enterprise productivity.
Kasekende added that the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS, held in New York called on Employers, Labour Unions, employees and volunteers to eliminate stigma and discrimination, protect human rights and facilitate access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
"One way of fulfilling this call as a private sector is to have effective HIV/AIDs prevention programmes through implementing workplace HIV/AIDS policies," stressed Kasekende who was speaking during the 2nd CEO testing and Health breakfast in Kampala.
The testing and health breakfast ran under the theme of "Knowing my Status-is my strategy to success."
Uganda Aids Commission director general Dr. David Kihumulo Apuuli noted that the HIV/AIDS scourge is still a big challenge with 40% of the Ugandan girls engaging in early sex exposing them to high risks of HIV/AIDS contraction.
He said that about 1.5 million Ugandans are HIV positive with most of the infected people have contracted the disease through hetero sex relationships.
Apuuli advised the CEO's to provide condoms to their workplaces as the risks of temptations may be high in their companies.
"We got about 128,000 new infections last year and about 73,000 adults and children are on ARV treatment," stressed Apuuli.
He said that the HIV/AIDS new infections are shifting from young people to older persons, with $294 spent by each company on each person through HIV/AIDS mitigation efforts.