People Living with HIV in Kampala receive food relief

By Ben Musanje

25^th Oct 2022

The National Forum of People Living with HIV/AIDS Network Uganda -NAFOPHANU has provided food relief to at least 500 homes of people living with HIV in Kampala.

This has been at the NAFOPHANU offices in Mengo along Sentema road in support of Aga Khan Foundation through the European Union where some of the representatives of these homes have received items like maize flour, beans, salt and super rice.

Speaking to journalists after the event, the NAFOPHANU Executive Director Stella Kentutsi says that the aim of the food distribution is to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 among People Living with HIV as their livelihoods were cut out during the first and second lockdowns.

She adds that recipients of care stopped taking their life saving Ant-Retroviral Therapy -ART while others opted to take drug holidays which led to poor adherence to ART, drug resistance, unsuppressed viral load and low immunity.

However, some of the beneficiaries have highlighted food as a major factor of adherence to ART saying they have been energized in swallowing the drugs.

As of December 2021, there were 1.4million number of People Living with HIV, 54000 new HIV infections and 17,000 annual AIDS related deaths according to the Uganda AIDs Commission -UAC.

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