Mass HIV testing campaign is being conducted in Uganda enabling many to
take the test for the first time in their lives.

GABBA FISH LANDING SITE ALONG LAKE VICTORIA, UGANDA (OCTOBER
27, 2008) REUTERS -
Uganda Cares, an NGO in Uganda is conducting a mass HIV testing
campaign until September 2009 to try and sensitise the public on HIV/Aids and
reduce infection rates.
Experts say many people in the country who are infected with HIV do not
know their status and are thus unable to access life saving Antiretroviral
(ARV) drugs or counselling and help increase the spread of the virus.
On Monday (October 27) a medical team set up a mobile laboratory at the
Gabba Landing Site on the shores of Lake Victoria and encouraged residents to
get tested.
"We have decided to bring mass testing for HIV to the community
because these people do not have the time to go and have an HIV test done and
the other thing is that a health facility where they are going to have the
test carried is not in a walking distance. And even the cost of the test is a
problem. So, we decided that we want to reduce the number of people who have
HIV and also to reduce the number of people who do not know the they are HIV
positive, and the only way we can do that is bringing the services closer to
them and getting them in big numbers," said Samula Kate, Head of Mass
Testing and Counselling at Uganda Cares.
20-year-old, Walter Baingana, lives at the Gabba Landing Site. He
admits to having multiple sexual partners and to having unprotected sex but he
says that he is glad he now knows his HIV status. This was the first time he
was taking an HIV test.
"I was taking myself may be to a certain level may be I failed, to
a certain level may be I'm infected, but right now am very sure am safe. I
have to take myself very seriously right now, it is the best time that I
should take my life as a priority than I have been, because I though all the
time I have been dead, but right now I have found that I am not, I really
have to take care of myself seriously than I have been," said Baingana.

Kayondo Tadeo makes his living from fishing in Lake Victoria, Africa's
largest lake. He says that the lifestyle of many of fishermen puts them at
risk but also adds that many do not have the time to go to hospitals to test
for HIV.
"The best thing is to come here and you are able to take the test,
because even those who would have had the time to go to a health facility can
also benefit. Given the nature of our job, after work we go to bars and the
next morning, and we don't have time to go to a health centre, but now the way
the services have been brought here, it is very good because we check and know
our status, it saves us a lot of trouble," said Tadeo.
Uganda Cares will also carry out testing in various other landing sites
and fishing villages and highly populated areas like markets and slums.
Officials hope to test at least 50,000 people.
Uganda has been widely praised for an education campaign about condoms
that is credited with cutting HIV prevalence rates from 30 percent two decades
ago to about six percent today. At least 1.5 million Ugandans are infected
with HIV.