SOUTHERN PROVINCE

HUYE — Scores of National University of Rwanda staff yesterday turned up for HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing, during the launch of the two-day activity at the Varsity main campus.

The campaign organised by the University League against HIV/Aids (LUCS) is meant to re-energise efforts geared at curbing the HIV/Aids spread, according to Dr Jean Bosco Gahutu, the LUCS Executive Secretary.

"Our centre is always open to staff and students but it has been realised that few people come for these services. This campaign is meant to encourage members of the University community to know their sero status,” said Gahutu.

He said that like in the rest of the world, the VCT campaign at the NUR faces a serious challenge of complacency: "People no longer bother to go for VCT services; they think that they now know a lot about the disease.”

"We are now using a myriad of ways like cultural galas, music shows and sports activities to attract people to go for VCT,” he said.

Recent statistics on the HIV/Aids prevalence at the university are hard to obtain. The last study conducted in 2001 put the prevalence rate at 1 percent, a figure Gahutu dismisses as not being representative enough.

"The research was based on people who voluntarily came for VCT. There was no systematic sample selected for the study so the findings cannot be applied to the whole university,” he observed.

Gahutu said that a new study that was expected to be conducted this year could not take off because of financial constraints.

"We failed to find funding as a single institution instead we were advised to partner with other regional universities for the research. We hope to do this next year through the inter-University Council of East Africa,” said Gahutu.

According to a research conducted in 2006 by Dr Gahutu and Thierry Nyatanyi on ‘knowledge, attitudes and practices as regards HIV/Aids amongst students at the National University of Rwanda’, of 26 percent who indicated that they are sexually active, 34 percent had unprotected sex - a situation Dr Gahutu describes as worrying.

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