By Mulengera Reporters
The Ministry of Health will use findings from the 2025 Uganda Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA) to shape the country’s HIV prevention, testing and treatment priorities over the next five years, Permanent Secretary Dr. Diana Atwine has said.
Atwine said the latest survey provides the government with a clearer picture of the country’s HIV situation and will serve as a roadmap for targeting interventions as Uganda works towards ending HIV and AIDS as a public health threat.
She was speaking at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Thursday during the release of the preliminary results of the 2025 UPHIA.
“We normally take these surveys to give us the status of our implementation, how far we have gone, but also to give us a very clear direction on where we need to put our emphasis as far as prevention and control is concerned,” Atwine said.
She said the findings come at a critical time when Uganda is pursuing the global 95-95-95 HIV targets, which seek to ensure that 95 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 95 percent of those diagnosed are on antiretroviral treatment, and 95 percent of those on treatment achieve viral suppression.
According to the preliminary findings, HIV prevalence among adults aged 15 years and older stands at 5.9 percent, with women recording a higher prevalence of 7.3 percent compared with 4.1 percent among men.
The survey estimates that about 1.496 million people are living with HIV in Uganda.
Atwine said one of the immediate priorities emerging from the assessment is identifying people living with HIV who remain outside the health system.
She said an estimated 150,000 people living with HIV do not know their status or have not yet started antiretroviral treatment, creating a significant gap in the country’s efforts to interrupt HIV transmission and improve health outcomes.
“This survey will give us a very clear direction on where to target our response, where we need to prioritise in terms of prevention, in terms of looking for those 150,000 people,” she said.
She also stressed the need to ensure that people already receiving treatment remain adherent to their medication and maintain viral suppression.
Young women remain a priority
The preliminary findings further point to a significant HIV burden among young women.
Among young people aged 15 to 24, HIV prevalence stands at 1.5 percent. However, young women have twice the prevalence recorded among young men, at 2.0 percent compared with 1.0 percent.
The gap widens as young people transition into their early twenties.
Among males, prevalence rises from 0.6 percent among those aged 15 to 19 to 1.5 percent among those aged 20 to 24.
Among females, it increases from 1.3 percent among those aged 15 to 19 to 2.8 percent among those aged 20 to 24.
The findings place the transition from adolescence to early adulthood among the areas requiring targeted prevention and testing interventions, particularly for girls and young women.
HIV prevalence remains stable
The latest assessment shows that HIV prevalence among adults aged 15 to 64 has remained relatively stable over the three UPHIA surveys.
Prevalence stood at 6.2 percent in the 2016/17 survey, declined to 5.9 percent in 2020/21 and remained at 5.9 percent in 2025.
Atwine said the purpose of the latest assessment was not only to establish the prevalence of HIV but also to determine how effectively existing interventions are performing and where further investment is required.
She said the findings would help the Ministry of Health and its partners determine where to concentrate resources and interventions during the next five years.
The 2025 UPHIA was led by the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health, with financial support from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and technical assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Makerere University School of Public Health implemented the assessment in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other government institutions, including the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda Bureau of Statistics, regional referral hospitals and local government authorities.
Atwine commended the institutions and teams involved in the survey, saying the assessment provides Uganda with the evidence needed to refine its HIV response.
She said the government will now use the findings to identify priority populations, strengthen prevention and testing, link more people to treatment and ensure those already on antiretroviral therapy remain in care.
The ultimate objective, she said, is to use the evidence from the survey to accelerate Uganda’s progress towards ending HIV and AIDS as a public health threat. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
