By Simon Wokorach
Gulu City :The Aid Support Organisation (ASO) Gulu is struggling to maintain community drug centres that ease access to medicines for people living with HIV in the Acholi sub-region.
Centre Manager Walter Okema told journalists at the Northern Uganda Media Club on Thursday that funding cuts by the American government have created a vacuum in life-care efforts.
Over the years, the centre has established a total of 85 community drug distribution points in Acholi and parts of the Lango sub-region, where people can access antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).
Funded under the USAID programme, volunteer health workers were facilitated to deliver drugs to nearby villages for distribution.
Okema, however, said that after the aid ended, the centre is now relying on membership fees and annual subscriptions to sustain the community drug distribution programme.
The membership contribution under its programme, Friends of Taso, begins at 5,000 shillings for children and ranges from 10,000 shillings to 20,000 shillings and above for other categories.
“When Trump cut off funds for us, we were told to go back home, but we asked, ‘Where will we leave all these people under our care?’ We can keep them alive using local resources,” Okema stated.
Taso Gulu has a total of 8,872 people actively on treatment, although 146 who abandoned treatment are hard to trace, according to the centre’s statistics.
The Focal Point Person for HIV in Gulu City, Florence Amito, has expressed fear over the rising number of young people contracting new infections amid the funding cuts.
“We have 390 new HIV infections in Gulu City every year, but the majority of the people are young people below 24 years,” Amito told journalists on Thursday.
She noted that due to funding gaps, the ART Clinics units at the hospital introduced to provide HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support are all closed.
“Everyone will now have to access care and pick up drugs from the same out-patient department because the ART clinics were run with external funding, which we no longer have,” Amito further disclosed.
By June 2026, the city had a total of 22,437 people living with HIV—largely 14,802 women compared to 7,637 men—with prevalence standing at 9%, above the national figure of 7%.
The higher risk factors for infection include behaviours, social factors, barriers to accessing healthcare services, transgender people, and women who receive money, goods, or money in exchange for sex.
According to UNAIDS, for more than two decades, the United States has funded the global AIDS response through PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria, among others.
From 2003 to 2024, PEPFAR saved more than 26 million lives and averted nearly 5 million new HIV infections by investing in critical HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support programmes in 55 countries.
However, as of December 2024, the United States government was supporting more than 20 million people with life-saving antiretroviral treatment, including about 560,000 children, according to a UNAIDS report.
A run for hope
With the country facing critical funding gaps, the Uganda AIDS Commission has embarked on domestic funding efforts to uphold gains in the fight against new HIV infections.
Victor Rwengaba, Zonal Coordinator for the AIDS Commission, said the commission is seeking multi-billion shillings to establish a home-care centre for people living with HIV in Kampala.
“We have a regional and national marathon to help us raise the funds, but we are also continuing to seek support from partners to fund this home,” Victor stated.
The regional marathon was flagged off from Arua on September 19, and the Gulu marathon is scheduled for September 27, two days into the national marathon in Kampala.
“The proceeds from these marathons will build this home. Girls as young as 12 years are being engaged in sex, yet they do not have the power to negotiate safer sex,” Rwengaba said, expressing deep concern.
