ABC strategy needs to be strengthened with the 6Ds in the fight against HIV/AIDS

Submitted by AkotJanetNyeko (AkotJanetNyeko) about 9 months ago

We need to be truthful to ourselves as human beings. Naturally and since time immemorial people have engaged in extra-marital sexual relations and very few couples stay away from the sexual network by fully committing to one partner.

In general, the majority of couples continue to be unfaithful to their sexual partners. And what happens when one partner is not faithful? The faithful partner will still end up contracting the HIV virus.

Then if we say always use condoms, what happens to procreation? Should couples stop procreating until a vaccine or cure for HIV/AIDS is found? Won’t the population of the world be wiped out if couples do not engage in procreation?

When one looks at the ABC strategy clearly, it does not say a lot about positive prevention as it seems to have been developed during a time when HIV/AIDS was a death sentence killing all the people who contracted the HIV virus with no life prolonging drugs available at the time.

Today, however, this is not the case owing to antiretroviral therapy so we need to integrate a different strategy called the 6Ds. According to Major Ruranga Rubaramira, retired National Coordinator of the Guidance and Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, the most important thing is education and awareness and not criminalization. The 6Ds are:

1. Detect whether he or she is vulnerable to HIV virus or not.

2. Determine by being tested if she or he is HIV positive or not. If one finds out that she or he is negative then the ABC strategy can work.

3. Disclose ones’ HIV status - if the result is HIV positive - so that the HIV/AIDS problem can be shared with others which includes the medical professionals, community members, family members for more support and education on how the couple will continute living together.

4. Defuse and stop the virus from killing one’s self by following the strategy of trying to live a “ near to normal life” with the HIV virus that is stopping the virus from causing harm to the body or managing the HIV virus.

5. Demystify by taming AIDS itself

6. Desist from infecting another person which would encroach on the already limited antiretroviral drug supply.

Keywords: 6DS ABC ABC strategy abstinence condoms couples criminalization HIV virus HIV/AIDS Sexual network Uganda

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