What is HIV/AIDS?

HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus that weakens the immune system whereby without treatment, will develop into AIDS; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. 34 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV.

 

Transmission, Testing & Treatment

HIV is transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids such as semen and vaginal fluid. This exchange of fluids can occur through sexual intercourse, drug injection, breastfeeding or during pregnancy with an infected mother. You cannot transmit HIV through hugging, kissing, coughing, shaking hands or sharing cutlery!
HIV can be detected through a number of tests with blood or an oral fluid sample.
In the Western World, as soon as one is tested positive for HIV - antiretroviral treatment is recommended to slow down the replication of the virus in the body, which maintains a healthy immune system. A CD4 count is performed to determine the number of healthy T cells that HIV has not infected. In developing countries only when the count is low enough (by UN regulations 350 cells/microlitre) will a patient start on antiretroviral treatment.

Once on AIDS treatment, the aim is to slow down the replication of HIV in the body, which slows the weakening of the immune system. An HIV positive person who adheres to their regimen with the correct nutrition should stay healthy for many years. Antiretroviral treatment is for life. Even when a patient's viral load (the amount of virus in the bodily fluid) is undetectable, the virus can still be transmitted. Unfortunately, an AIDS vaccine has not been developed therefore, Stars of Hope Uganda's mission is to give patients at our clinics and sites access to this treatment that will prolong their life and maintain a healthy immune system.

Access to treatment

Even with intensified efforts by governments to make treatment available, more than half the people who need them still don't have access to the AIDS medicines that will keep them alive. Thousands continue to die unnecessarily in the greatest human catastrophe known to man.

Stars of hope Uganda is founded on the belief that treatment for HIV/AIDS is a fundamental human right that should be guaranteed to all people. Our work of scaling-up clinics in resource poor communities throughout Uganda brings free comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment and care to those who need it most to survive.

Today, decreases in funding for AIDS threaten to drive another nail in the coffin of a continent still struggling to overcome the injustice of AIDS. Stars of hope Uganda refuses to let the promise of universal access to AIDS treatment slip away. We remain committed to providing life-saving treatment to the poor and to engaging the global public in our urgent response.

Vulnerable Children

We live in a world where more than 16 million children have been orphaned by AIDS, 14.9 million in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Stars of hope Uganda, founded as an urgent response to access AIDS treatment to the poor, increasingly finds itself responding to the epidemic of orphaned and vulnerable children whose parents could not be saved in time.
In Africa, where before AIDS there was no word for orphan in any language, an entire generation of children has grown into adulthood without the love, care and protection of their parents. AIDS has decimated the extended family system: children have been robbed of their parents, and the elderly left with a generation of grandchildren to raise in their old age. Communities that once formed a safety net that absorbed children in need have long been overwhelmed by the number of orphans left by AIDS stretched beyond their limit to help.
The circumstances faced by these children in their daily struggle to survive - to find shelter, food and safety from the dangers that surround them - demand a greater response from the entire world. Stars of hope Uganda is committed to supporting community-based care programs that help children living in child headed-households, care homes for children orphaned by AIDS and alone in the world, and places of safety for the growing number of child victims of rape and abuse.

Food for Life

Food is essential to nourish and sustain all life, and for people with AIDS proper nutrition is as important to their survival as the drugs themselves. Food helps ARV medications to be absorbed by the body effectively, strengthens the immune system and allows someone with AIDS to experience the transformative effects of the drugs.
But many of the children and families underserved by access to AIDS treatment face the same challenge in getting even the basic nutrition they need to survive. For some, the immediate relief of food to quiet the cries of a child suffering from hunger is preferred to the drugs - even when the drugs can mean long-term survival.
Stars of Hope Uganda recognizes that food is an integral part of comprehensive treatment for AIDS. In the communities where we work, extreme poverty makes access to critically needed nutrition an impossibility for many in our care. S H U provides food assistance, including monthly food parcels, to patients on ARVs who would go hungry without support for nutrition.
As large-scale relief agencies cut back food aid to countries still reeling from the devastation of the AIDS pandemic, commodities prices soar and disease threatens crop staples, the number of patients in need of nutrition rises daily.Stars of Hop Uganda is committed to providing comprehensive treatment that includes support for food so that those in our care can be restored to health and productivity.

AIDS in Africa
Two-thirds of people worldwide with HIV are in Sub-Saharan Africa

• 68% of people infected with HIV are in Sub-Saharan Africa, making it the most heavily affected region in the world
• 22.5 million people are living with HIV and 15 million children have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS
• The impact of AIDS in Africa affects every aspect of life, from households changing, to food production and the economy but most importantly, AIDS in Africa affects the children
• Children also face the horrifying idea of sexual abuse and rape especially in South Africa where 50 child rapes are reported everyday. There is an urgent need to provide safety, protection and care for these children.
• Only 44% of those in need of AIDS treatment are receiving it. Providing anti-retroviral treatment and surrounding support to those infected with HIV can sustain life, protect from opportunistic infections and give the chance at a longer life expectancy of 47 years which is the current average in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lets come together and see our world Healed.
Edwine Businge
Founder Director