Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - Thursday, 21 October, 2004
The Infectious Diseases Institute, largely funded by drug company Pfizer, will train up to 200 doctors a year.
It will also treat some 300 HIV patients a day with the latest anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).
Uganda has been widely praised for its fight against Aids, where a government campaign which saw infection rates drop from 30% to 6% in a decade.
Correspondents say Uganda was chosen to host the centre because of this success.
Scarce resources
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni opened the facility along with Pfizer's head, Hank McKinnell.
"If professionals at this hospital can train a hundred like them in a year, then that hundred can train thousands more in the years that follow," Mr McKinnell told Reuters news agency.
The institute's training initiatives will ultimately result in improved care for millions of patients, he said.
After qualifying many of its students will go to work in rural clinics, where resources are scarce.
"If and when they begin prescribing ARVs, they need to know what tests they can do without and still be relatively successful in monitoring and treating patients," said Dr Moses Kamya, the institute's head of training.
Pfizer, one of the world's richest drug companies, says the training centre - based at Makerere University - is one of the largest of its kind in East Africa.
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