Watiti says to the site "Sky News Arabia"It’s when his work began as a junior doctor in a hospital "Robaja" The Ugandan capital Kampala After graduating from Makerere University School of Medicine in the year 1985 "AIDS was at that time hitting hard throughout the country; The situation was very tragic".
After a year of practicing his profession in that hospital, the young doctor found himself on the list of the injured, but despite the tragedy, he did not give up and began to fight a double battle to live with the disease on the one hand and help millions of injured Ugandans on the other.
As he got older and got more academic qualifications, the complications of the disease increased in Matete as he contracted other diseases; However, this did not prevent him from continuing his march towards working towards achieving the goal of reaching a generation free of disease by 2030.
Mateti, who appeared to be healthy and energetic when he spoke to him, explains "Sky News Arabia" from his home in a suburb of the capital, Kampala; The work in the fight against AIDS is not only a personal challenge, but an ambition to save humanity at least at the national level.
Matiti points out that the national organizations active in the fight against the disease work according to national and international strategies through various educational, treatment and awareness methods.
Extensive work
In fact, a simple tour around the capital Kampala and the country’s other major cities reflects the great interest in combating the disease, which poses a major economic, social and health dilemma in the East African country of Uganda, which has been one of the countries most affected by the disease during the past four decades.
And spread on the streets, hotels, restaurants and bars, posters of awareness of the disease and ways to prevent it. Although night life seems to be more popular in cities, tourist areas and nightclubs, awareness of AIDS appears to be remarkably high.
On the other hand, dozens of governmental and voluntary centers, organizations and associations that work in the field of facilitating treatment and awareness services are spread in the overcrowded slums.
In this context, Hilda Kazeto, Program Director at the AIDS Information Center in Kampala, tells "Sky News Arabia"Ugandan society has become more open to receiving awareness programs over the past years. explain "The tragedy was so great during the first twenty years of the outbreak of the disease; People were dying by the thousands and they didn’t know the cause or their relatives didn’t want to reveal the cause and thousands of babies were born with the infection from their mothers.".
She continued that "The situation has completely changed in recent years, stressing that more than 70 percent of pregnant women with gynecomastia request the necessary medical assistance to enable them to have healthy children, which was positively reflected on the infection rates among births, which fell to less than 2 percent compared to 26 percent. cent at the beginning of this century.
The results of Uganda’s battle with AIDS seem more evident in the aspect related to reducing mortality rates; Despite the relatively high cost of treatment, government and international support contributed greatly to facilitating the process of obtaining therapeutic doses for the largest number of patients, which led to a reduction in the death rate by about 88 percent during the past thirty years.
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Infection rates have decreased AIDS in Uganda From 20 percent of the population of about 40 million people to 5.5 percent in 2022.
Watiti told “Sky News Arabia” that when his work began as a junior doctor in the “Rubaga” hospital in the Ugandan capital Kampala After graduating from Makerere University Medical School in 1985, “AIDS was hitting hard all over the country at that time; the situation was pretty tragic.”
After a year of practicing his profession in that hospital, the young doctor found himself on the list of the injured, but despite the tragedy, he did not give up and began to fight a double battle to live with the disease on the one hand and help millions of injured Ugandans on the other.
As he got older and got more academic qualifications, the complications of the disease increased in Matete as he contracted other diseases; However, this did not prevent him from continuing his march towards working towards achieving the goal of reaching a generation free of disease by 2030.
And explains Mateti, who seemed to be in good health and lively when he spoke to “Sky News Arabia” from his home in a suburb of the capital, Kampala; The work in the fight against AIDS is not only a personal challenge, but an ambition to save humanity at least at the national level.
Matiti points out that the national organizations active in the fight against the disease work according to national and international strategies through various educational, treatment and awareness methods.
Extensive work
In fact, a simple tour around the capital Kampala and the country’s other major cities reflects the great interest in combating the disease, which poses a major economic, social and health dilemma in the East African country of Uganda, which has been one of the countries most affected by the disease during the past four decades.
And spread on the streets, hotels, restaurants and bars, posters of awareness of the disease and ways to prevent it. Although night life seems to be more popular in cities, tourist areas and nightclubs, awareness of AIDS appears to be remarkably high.
On the other hand, dozens of governmental and voluntary centers, organizations and associations that work in the field of facilitating treatment and awareness services are spread in the overcrowded slums.
In this context, Hilda Kazeto, Program Director at the AIDS Information Center in Kampala, told Sky News Arabia that Ugandan society has become more open to receiving awareness programs over the past years. She explains, “The tragedy was very big during the first twenty years of the outbreak of the disease; people were dying by the thousands and did not know the cause or their relatives did not want to reveal the cause, and thousands of children were born with the infection from their mothers.”
And she continued, “The situation has completely changed in recent years, stressing that more than 70 percent of pregnant women with gynecomastia seek the necessary medical help that enables them to have healthy children, which was positively reflected on the infection rates among births, which fell to less than 2 percent compared to With 26 percent at the beginning of the century.
The results of Uganda’s battle with AIDS seem more evident in the aspect related to reducing mortality rates; Despite the relatively high cost of treatment, government and international support contributed greatly to facilitating the process of obtaining therapeutic doses for the largest number of patients, which led to a reduction in the death rate by about 88 percent during the past thirty years.