Prevalence and response to Sexual and Gender Based Violence Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Lira District, Uganda

Sexual and Gender Based violence (SGBV) is violence directed at a person on the basis of gender and/or sex. It still remains a global health, economic, development and human right violation problem. There is a very strong interrelationship between HIV infection and SGBV. A cross sectional study was conducted on 334 PHAs above 18 years old in Lira District, Uganda. The objectives were to assess the prevalence and response to SGBV and specifically to determine the prevalence of SGBV, to identify the types of SGBV suffered, to assess the victim responses to SGBV and the capacity of the health care providers to manage SGBV cases. On descriptive analysis of the data collected and assessment of the associations between variables using cross tabulation and logistic regression, the prevalence of SGBV among the PHAs was found to be at 47.3 %. More women are affected (77.6%) than men ( 22.4%). The various types of SGBV commonly occurring are: emotional violence 62%, physical 55.5% and sexual violence 8.7%. 44.3% of SGBV cases reported to clan leaders, relatives, elders and police. Few SGBV victims seek medical treatment. The health care providers offer SGBV related services but they lack specific training in clinical management of SGBV and they do not use the MOH SGBV reporting tools. Community sensitization and education on SGBV, Law enforcement and training of health workers on clinical management of SGBV.