The Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kampala, Uganda, is asking parents to have their children tested for HIV, reports the Ugandan newspaper The New Vision/AllAfrica.com (allafrica.com, 5/19).
“In Uganda, 25,000 babies are infected with HIV each year,” Dr. Victor Muslime, head of pediatrics at the center told crowds at a Kampala slum on May 17, where over 200 children were tested. “Without treatment, 66 percent of them will die before they are 3 years [old] and 75 percent will die before they turn 5.”
The New Vision reports that most testing efforts in Uganda are aimed at adults; however, more than 100,000 children are living with HIV in the country.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
