Overview
Uganda has made tremendous improvements in terms of declining the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. This trend is traceable to the early 1990s when the government launched an initiative campaign aimed at eradicating the scourge. According to the survey conducted by UNICEF, the number of children up to the age of 15 years living with HIV/AIDs dropped to a record 1.1 million.
The report by the Ugandan Ministry of Health, to mother-child infection accounted for about 90% of children living with HIV/AIDS. The increase in the HIV/AIDS infection has been challenging in respect of the inability to track their demographics (Dube, Shoko and Hayes 98).
HIV/AIDS among educated children in Uganda
A survey conducted in Uganda suggests that sex education in Ugandan schools and through the media has prevailed in encouraging teenagers to engage in protected sex or have delayed the age at which they participate in premarital sex. Since the campaign initiative of the early 1990s, a USAID-sponsored scheme to encourage the use of condoms through community and school education has improved condom use from about 7% to a whopping 50% in the Ugandan rural areas while the urban areas have managed over 85%.
Increased use of condoms among teenagers aged between 13-19 years saw a reduced the rate of infection by about 60%. Additionally, sex education among children organized to salvage the children have recorded an increased number of children who have never engaged in early sex from 20% to about 65% between 1989 and 2005 (Dube, Shoko and Hayes 128).
Although it is arguable that the HIV/AIDS prevalence among children is heavily due to mother-child transmission, studies reveal that the prevalence among them has also been due to unprotected early sex. Generally, the reduced rate of children living with IADS has been mainly because of reduced prevalence among women aged between the ages of 15-24 years. Research suggests that there is a strict correlation between child education and HIV/AIDS prevalence (Dube, Shoko and Hayes 98).
In a study conducted in Uganda in the early 1990s, results indicated that young men and women who completed secondary education were seven times less likely to contract the disease than those with little or no education (UNFPA, 2011). Women studies confirm that post-primary education among the girl-child provides the greatest pay-off for their empowerment. Additionally, higher education offers more specific knowledge and life skills required to make informed decisions during their later age.
HIV/AIDS among non-educated children in Uganda
Researches conducted by numerous scholars have suggested that there exist a positive relationship between education and HIV prevalence among children. Studies show that in the absence of awareness about HIV/AIDS, individuals tend to have several sex partners, hence increasing their risk of infection. According to Simmons, Fawzi and Bundy (2008), an increased sex education through prevention messages remains a protective element against the infection of HIV/AIDS.
Increasingly, research demonstrates that increased educational campaign among children has been used as a tool in fighting against the pandemic. Reduced education enrollment among children in rural areas has increased the rate of HIV/AIDS infection among children in Uganda (Kalipeni 174). Studies suggest that people with low understanding of the effects of HIV/AIDS are risky compared to children with higher levels of education.
According to a study conducted by Jukes, Simmons, Fawzi and Bundy (2008) on Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA) found that HIV/IADS specific education a positive contribution toward reduced prevalence among children in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Although the educational efforts to reduce the HIV/AIDS infection has had a far-reaching impact on the reduced levels of prevalence among Ugandan children, declined campaigns in the rural Uganda accounts for the low improvements in HIV/AIDS prevalence among rural children. These results suggest that children who underwent through education stood a better chance of avoiding unprotected and early sex compared to those who had little or no education (Dube, Shoko and Hayes 98).
Gender studies conducted demonstrate that girls with less than 7 years of study exhibited a higher likelihood of getting married before the age of18, and early marriages have a statistical link to high risks of infection (UNFPA, 2011). Schools provide a mechanism of sourcing for information about the prevention of HIV. Recent studies and analysis by Global campaign for Education (GCE) indicate that if children attained a complete primary education, it can reduce the impact of HIV by about 700, 000 cases among young adults.
Works Cited
Dube, Lilian, Tabona Shoko, and Stephen Hayes. African Initiatives in Healing Ministry. University of South Africa: UNISA Press.
Jukes, Matthew, Stephanie Simmons, Mary Fawzi and Donald Bundy. “Educational access and HIV prevention: Making the case for education as a health priority in sub-Saharan Africa.” Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS. (2008): 1-33.
Kalipeni, Ezekiel. HIV and AIDS in Africa: beyond epidemiology. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004. Print.
UNFPA. Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis. Web.