KAMPALA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan government on Tuesday renewed its strategy of fighting the increasing HIV/AIDS pandemic by partnering with media houses to concentrate on prevention messages rather than treatment.

    Kihumuro Apuuli, director general of the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), told media managers here that the government has been compelled to focus on prevention rather treatment because of the increasing number of new infections annually.

    "We need to work together to make sure this message is all over the airwaves. If we partner properly we can reverse the trend of this virus," he said.

    "We owe it to ourselves to change the destiny of this country, we want to see a reversal and an end of this virus," he added.

    According to UAC, Uganda registered more than 110,000 new HIV infections and 63,000 HIV-related deaths in 2008, while over 2.6 million people have contracted the virus, out of which 1.1 million people are still struggling with it.

    Out of the 320,000 people who are in dire need of antiretroviral treatment only 191,000 can access it with each individual costing government over 11,500 U. S. dollars over a lifetime.

    Jesse Kagimba, senior presidential advisor on HIV/AIDS, said there is need to refocus on the development agenda because HIV/AIDS was bleeding the country to death.

    "We might be training people, building roads but we are bleeding to death. All these being trained are dying of AIDS," he said.

    He appealed to the media to resume using messages that instill fear among the public saying it is the only way of bringing down the prevalence rate like it was in the 1990s.

    Uganda has made great success in bringing down its prevalence rate from 18 percent in the 1990s to 6.2 percent in 2005.

    According to medical experts, the prevalence rate has stagnated at 6.2 percent over the last three to four years which may indicate that the infection rate is going up.