Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PRNewswire - November 18, 2003
-- New Clinic is Second, After Masaka District Clinic, in Partnership Between The Ministry of Health/ Government of Uganda, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation Global Immunity
SOROTI, Uganda, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- His excellence, Yoweri Kagata Museveni, President of The Republic of Uganda, will attend the dedication ceremony this morning of the new "Uganda Cares" Soroti Healthcare Center, a free AIDS treatment clinic in Soroti, Uganda that will provide life-saving anti-retroviral treatments (ARVs) as part of Uganda's ambitious effort to scale up the delivery or ARVs in that country. Museveni and other Ugandan ministers and dignitaries will then tour the clinic, a partnership between the Ministry of Health/Republic of Uganda, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation Global Immunity, which is a non-profit, international initiative of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), that works in partnership with local stakeholders to establish replicable, scalable and sustainable models for HIV/AIDS medical services delivery in resource-constrained settings. The clinic dedication ceremony begins at 9:00am at the Soroti Healthcare Center, which is in the grounds of the Church of Uganda's Healthcare Centre (Soroti Healthcare Center, Church of Uganda Healthcare Centre, 15-17 Station Road, P.O. Box 107, Soroti, Uganda).
The Soroti Healthcare Center will be the second "Uganda Cares" free AIDS treatment clinic operated under the partnership. It follows the Uganda Cares Masaka Healthcare Center in the Masaka District, approximately 120km southwest from Kampala, which has been treating Ugandans with AIDS and providing ARVs since February, 2002.
In September, the Honorable Captain George Michael Mukula, Minister of State for Health, Republic of Uganda, who is expected to also attend the Soroti clinic opening in Uganda this morning, announced in a Washington, DC reception a groundbreaking initiative to offer life-extending anti-retroviral medications to as many as 10,000 Ugandans living with HIV/AIDS by next summer in a partnership with AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest AIDS organization in the US and operator of free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Uganda, South Africa, and Honduras, and AHF Global Immunity.
In announcing the new ARV treatment plan in September -- one of the most ambitious on the African continent to date -- the Honorable Captain Mukula, described AHF Global Immunity's existing HIV medical treatment program in Uganda's Masaka District, which has been providing medical care and free ARV treatment to Ugandans for over one year, as a "proven initiative," that not only can expand quickly in the district, but can also assist other district hospitals launch anti-retroviral treatment programs. The Masaka program -- a collaboration among AHF Global Immunity, Kitovu Mobile, The AIDS Service Organization (TASO) and the Ugandan Ministry called 'Uganda Cares' -- provides free medical care and ARV treatment in a rural area of the country.
Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said, "This new commitment from the Ugandan government means an almost immediate and far- reaching scale up of HIV/AIDS patients on life-saving ARV treatment in Uganda, and we thank both the Minister and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for their vision and leadership in this effort. Over the past year and a half, AHF Global Immunity's Uganda Cares Masaka Healthcare Center has been privileged to bring ARV treatment to a limited number of Ugandans living with HIV/AIDS in an effort to develop a model of treatment that we and others may now bring to other communities throughout Uganda, and the Soroti Healthcare Center aims to do just that."
In July of this year, AHF Global Immunity and Gilead Sciences, Inc., the Foster City, California-based manufacturer of several key AIDS drugs, announced a similar partnership in the fight against AIDS: Gilead announced it would support a scale up of Ugandan patients being treated with ARVs and also provide its AIDS drugs tenofovir (Viread(R)) and FTC (Emtriva(TM)) free to patients at AHF Global Immunity's free AIDS treatment clinic in Masaka. That partnership is enabling Uganda Cares/Masaka to expand from roughly 100 patients to 1,000 patients; the September announcement by Uganda's Captain Mukula increases the number to as many as 10,000 Ugandans who may now access life-saving ARV treatment. Uganda's population is just over 21 million people, more than 800,000 of whom are currently living with, and dying from AIDS.
"We are both honored and privileged to have Captain Mukula and the Ugandan Government's commitment to partner with us as we try and bring more people in the developing world into the lifeboat of AIDS treatment via the scale up of delivery of anti-retroviral therapy in Uganda," said Henry Chang, AHF Global Immunity's Executive Director said in a statement.
Uganda Ministry of Health -- has a history of providing leadership through a pro-active approach to addressing HIV/AIDS pandemic through national & regional HIV programmes. The ministry supports the work of NGOs & the collaborative effort to improve health and delivery systems across Uganda.
AHF Global Immunity -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation, established in 1987, is the largest non-profit HIV/AIDS specialty medical service provider in the United States. AHF has founded AHF Global Immunity, which is a non-profit, international initiative of AIDS Healthcare Foundation that works in partnership with local stakeholders to establish replicable, scalable and sustainable models for HIV/AIDS medical services delivery in resource- constrained settings. The mission of AHF Global Immunity is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic by expanding access to live sustaining ARV treatment for HIV positive people across the globe. AHF-GI work with NetCom and other stakeholders to operate the Ithembalabantu "Peoples Hope" Clinic in Umlazi Township, the largest HIV/AIDS treatment site in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban, South Africa. AHF Global Immunity also operates two other free AIDS treatment clinics in the developing world: Uganda, the Uganda Cares Healthcare Center in Masaka, Uganda; and Honduras, the Siempre Unidos Clinic in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. http://www.aidshealth.org .
SOURCE AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Web Site: http://www.aidshealth.org
031118
PR031140
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