Medical authorities said on Thursday that the number of people swallowing the drugs had increased six-fold between January and December 2001. Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, the director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), said the price reduction had enabled 2,500 new patients to enroll for treatment at JCRC alone this
LIBERALISATION of the media, investment in education and openness about one s sero-status are major strategies in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a senior official in the Ministry of Health has said. Charles Kakamwa reports that Dr. David Kaweesi, an economist, said liberalisation of the media would lead to greater awarene
The woes of AIDS patients are deepening as the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) rapidly becomes resistant to drugs. The Washington Post, a prestigious newspaper in the United States , reported on December 19, that half the Americans living with HIV had strains that were resistant to at least one drug. Ugandan ex
TEACHERS in primary and post-primary schools have been urged to take a leading role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Kasese Resident District Commissioner Musa Ecweru said this at Bwera Teachers College in Bukonzo county on the occasion to mark the World AIDS day. He said teachers were a source of knowledge and and there
MSI-UGANDA, the distributors of LIFEGUARD condoms have imported 5 million condoms for the Christmas season. Christine Namayanja, the Life Guard acting programme director, told journalists in Kampala yesterday that another 5 million would be in the country before the new year s day. A total of 230,000 female condoms hav
Forty-seven of the Rwandan genocide widows who were raped by Hutu gangs in the bloodletting have died of AIDS, reports the Association of Genocide Widows (AVEGA). AVEGA which champions for the right of genocide widows says that 1,100 of them have tested HIV/AIDS positive. This figure is believed to be much higher becau
State Minister for Gender and Culture, Sam Bitangaro recently said that gender issues should be integrated into the work of HIV/AIDS service organisations to effect successful prevention. Bitangaro was opening a regional conference at the Grand Imperial Hotel on HIV/AIDS for the countries in the east, central, Southern
The most common malaria drug might have a future in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Italian scientists say they have found preliminary evidence that chloroquine retards the multiplication of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The team led by Dr Andrea Savarino of the University of Turin, Italy , said chloroquin
GOVERNMENT will facilitate victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic who publically declare their status, state minister for planning Mr. Isaac Musumba has said, reports Abubaker Mukose. The Government realises the virtue of victims who come out in the open to declare that they have AIDS. Such people are community mobilisers wh
Joint Clinical Research Centre executive director Dr. Peter Mugyenyi has received an award for his dedication towards AIDS research. Mugyenyi received the award from the Tamil Naidu MGR Medical University in Chennia, India , last week. The award was presented to Mugyenyi by Dr. Uton Muchtar Rafei, the World Health Orga
NAMIREMBE Diocese will start providing generic anti-retroviral HIV drugs, the acting diocese secretary, Moses Matovu, has said. Speaking during the diocese s World AIDS Day celebrations at Kitende parish, Kajjansi, on Sunday, Matovu said the drugs would be provided to members of the diocese who test positive with the H
THE Minister for the Presidency, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, presided over the inauguration of the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) Board at Grand Imperial Hotel in Kampala yesterday. The 18-member board is chaired by the retired Bishop of Kabale, Barnabas Halem Imana. The members are health minister Brig. Jim Muhwezi, the UAC
The Minister of State for Gender and Cultural Affairs, Sam Bitangaro, has called on governments in East, Central and the Horn of Africa to involve women in all components of HIV/AIDS programmes. He said the status of women needs special emphasis. Bitangaro was last week officiating at the opening a two-day regional gen
INMATES suffering from HIV/AIDS may soon walk free if the Government adopted resolutions passed at the international conference on health conditions in African prisons. Delegates in a declaration resolved to urge their respective governments to consider releasing prisoners suffering from AIDS. They said such victims sh
For every one man with AIDS, there are six women with AIDS between the age group of 15 to 19 and 20 to 24, the Ministry of Health AIDS Control Programme HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, June 2001 reported. Although the male to female ratio of AIDS cases overall is 1 to 1, there are slightly more women reported with AIDS i
Uganda should be moved onto a war footing to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, health minister Jim Muhwezi has said. He was yesterday opening a workshop for the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) in Jinja. He said globally malaria killed over one million people in the year 2000, AIDS about
Wife inheritance, especially in eastern Uganda , has to be seriously discussed. Although HIV infection prevalence rates have continued to decline in Uganda, there has not been a dramatic decline in the rates over the past two years. This is contained in the HIV/AIDS surveillance report for June 2001 produced by the Min
Dr Samuel Okware, the Commissioner Community Services (community health) has castigated doctors who have called for the labelling of people with HIV so as to prevent further spread of the disease. In an interview in Kampala recently, Okware said if people with HIV/AIDS were discriminated against they would not cooperat
A survey among different groups of people has shown that messages regarding HIV/AIDS have become boring with many of them saying that they had stopped listening to them. Ministry of Health has even stopped some of the messages from being run during this year s AIDS campaign. Do you know that AIDS is still a killer dise
It is not the only epidemic. There are new epidemics and even old diseases may re-emerge December 1, was World AIDS Day. Our health writer, Barbara Bitangaro was one of the first journalists in Uganda to educate the public on HIV/AIDS. She documents the changing HIV trends two decades after the start of the epidemic
The state minister for health, Mike Mukula, has said local pharmaceutical companies manufacturing cheaper generic anti-retroviral HIV/AIDS drugs are to be given tax holidays, reports Kikonyogo Ngatya. Mukula said this on Saturday during the World Aids Day celebrations in Kampala. He said some local drug companies had e
South London African Health Initiative led by the Uganda Aids Action Fund (UAAF), has received over UK£1m national lottery grant from the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) to carry out a health project. NOF London officer Ceri Jones revealed this while presenting to Dr Godfrey Luyombya, Chairman of UAAF, a plaque during a p
It has a biblical replica whereby lepers were required to move around with bells to make loud proclamation of their health status Any suggestion that compulsory testing for HIV/AIDS should be introduced in Uganda is, to say the least, absurd. But a suggestion to that effect emanating from the medical profession is much
A UGANDAN non-governmental organisation, The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) has been short-listed among four other international bodies to represent the world on the board of the Transitional Working Group (TWG) to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, who is also the acting chairman of the TWA G
ABOUT 30,000 babies in Uganda are born with HIV, Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, the Minister Without Portfolio, told Parliament yesterday. Kiyonga, who is chairman of the Transitional Working Group to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, was giving a ministerial statement on the progress made in fighting the diseases. He said The AID
THE Director General of the Uganda Aids Commission, Dr Kihumuro Apuuli, has said people who intentionally infect others with HIV face seven years in jail. Giving a public lecture on HIV/AIDS at Kyambogo University yesterday, Kihumuro said, Some people out of malice or hatred infect others with the disease with their fu
STANDARD Chartered Bank (SCB) has won the Commonwealth Award for its outstanding campaign against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The award, handed over to SCB in London early this week, recognises the bank s efforts in supporting staff and their families, as well as its work in generating awareness about the HIV/AIDS in the commu
The World Trade Organisation ( WTO) has allowed Uganda and other developing countries that declared AIDS a national emergency to import and manufacture cheaper generic anti-retroviral HIV drugs. Dr Kihumuro Apuuli, the Director General of Uganda Aids Commission told a press conference yesterday in Kampala that the deci
State minister for Health Captain Mike Mukula has asked the public not to fear telling mourners at burials that the deceased had died of AIDS. Tell the people the truth about the AIDS victims. This will help control the spread of AIDS, he said. He said this recently while officiating at the commissioning Endiizi outpat
Lawyers and human rights activists have protested against a move by some doctors to push for a law to label HIV/AIDS victims as a way of containing transmission. Doctors are themselves divided on whether HIV/AIDS victims must be forcefully labelled. The opponents of the law are worried that labelling the victims would
Makerere University Vice-Chancellor Prof. John Sebuwufu has advised first year students to guard against AIDS. He was speaking during the official ceremony to welcome first year students at the Freedom Square recently. Academic registrar Sebastian Ngobi introduced the 15,686 students. Sebuwufu urged the students to wor
THE youth in Buvuma Islands, Mukono, on Saturday received 15 bicycles worth sh1m to help in the fight against AIDS, reports Nicholas Kajoba. The bicycles distributed under the Programme for Enhancement of Adolescent Reproductive Life are to help the youth sensitise peer groups on the dangers of early sex. The district
People living with HIV or those who have lost spouses to AIDS should be free to get married but should use condoms to avoid re-infection, the Church of Uganda Archbishop, Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo, has said. He said this yesterday while officiating at this year s HIV/AIDS campaign in memory of the late Philly Bongoley Lutaaya
People who have died of AIDS should be exposed during burial, the state minister for health, Mike Mukula, said on Sunday. Mukula made the remarks recently during a four-day consultative meeting on HIV/AIDS at Uganda Muslim Supreme Council offices in Old Kampala. Participants included Muslim leaders from 22 countries in
THE HIV-AIDS infection rate in the Uganda Police Force has dropped to 4% this year from 40% in 1996, a Police social worker has said. We are better than the national standard and things have greatly improved in the Uganda Police Force, ASP Baziraki said while addressing the first deputy premier and Minister of Internal
The US has earmarked US$10m to assist the armed forces in Africa fight HIV/AIDS, a Washington-based official has said. David Hermon, an official with the HIV/AIDS Training Programme for African Defence Forces, said the money was for projects aimed at preventing HIV/AIDS infection among the military. Speaking during an
Busia district has launched an HIV/AIDs committee with a call on the members to be dedicated by effectively implementing the goals of the programme entrusted to them. The acting Deputy Administrative officer Busia, Mr. Vincent Adeya, told guests at the launching ceremony at Mabrose Restaurant on Wednesday that since ev
Several local pharmaceutical manufacturers are preparing to begin producing cheaper versions of AIDS drugs. Pharmaceutical sources told The New Vision at the launching of the Uganda Essential Drugs List at Hotel Equatoria on Friday evening that the move would make the drugs a lot cheaper. The companies planning loc
Lira district has received sh25m from UNICEF for the implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes. This was revealed recently by the district point officer, Godfrey Ogwal, during a workshop for the district team at Lira Hotel. He said seven pilot sub-counties of Omoro, Aromo, Ogur, Okwang, Olilim, Orum and Adwari would benefi
THE United States Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has given the Islamic Medical Association of Uganda (IMAU) a boost of US$200,000 (sh350m) for the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission in communities. The grant was announced by the US ambassador, Mr. Martin Brennan, during the International Muslim Leader Co
Mukono - The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Bakoru Bakoko, has urged parents and teachers to start advising adolescents about condom use. Bakoko said this at the end of a population and reproductive health seminar held at Colline Hotel, Mukono on Thursday. The two-week course drew participants from
Students have requested that condoms be supplied to them in schools because drug shops operators and other distribution outlets harass them. Student leaders from five Kampala secondary schools said at the closure of a three-day training workshop on HIV/AIDS peer educators at Makerere High School, Wandegeya on Thursday
HIV/Aids infection has continued to decline in the urban and rural parts of the country, with the overall weighted antenatal prevalence down to 6.1% from 6.8% in 1999. The Director General of Uganda Aids commission, Dr. David Kihumuro Apuuli, yesterday said the dropping rates were skewed towards the urban sites where t
The Government has committed sh200m this year for anti-aids activities in Kabarole district, reports Emmanuel Mulondo. This was announced by Kabarole LC5 chairman Augustine Kayonga during celebrations to mark the 39th independence day at Karambi on Tuesday. Kayonga said the activities would mostly take into account the
The British government has pledged US$200m to the global trust fund established on August 1, to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. Part of the money is to support the fund s secretariat in Brussels and the satellite office in Kampala where Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, the chairman of the fund, sits. Kiyonga is also Uganda s Natio
Soroti district has received a total of 240,000 condoms to protect residents against the HIV virus. The district health inspector of schools, Martin Amodoi, said the condoms will help reduce the increasing rate of HIV infections among the youth. The condoms were donated by the Ministry of Health to the district health
The Aids Support Organisation (TASO), Mulago branch, has received food from USAID to feed 1,000 families affected by AIDS/HIV, reports Florence Nakaayi. Senior counsellor Elly K. Ssendi said this at the Kyanja Muslim Primary School, Nakawa, Kampala, at the launch of the HIV/AIDS eradication campaign week on Saturday. T
Under ideal circumstances, mothers living with HIV/AIDS are supposed to give birth by caesarean section. In Uganda , however, this is not advisable. The recent satellite meeting at Hotel Africana in Kampala on women living with HIV had caesarean section as one of its issues of discussion. As women talked about the
A CROSS-section of donor agencies, government departments and non-government organisations have asked the Government to amend the Uganda AIDS Commission Statute. The various stakeholders attending an HIV/AIDS co-ordination workshop at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe on Monday said many things have changed
Kampala - A Ugandan epidemiologist yesterday called for new approaches to primary HIV/AIDS prevention as a means to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. Dr. Fred Wabwire-Mangen, director of the Institute of Public Health, Makerere University was speaking at the just ended conference on global strategies for preven
Nsambya is one of the hospitals implementing the Government programme A study presented to the third conference on Global Strategies for the Prevention of HIV TRansmission from Mothers to Infants indicated that HIV positive mothers in Uganda find it difficult to adhere to the infant feeding methods that they choose dur
Kampala - THE HIV/AIDS vaccine that is due to be tested in Uganda has shown promising signs in a trial currently going on in Kenya , a researcher said yesterday. Dr. Omu Anzala, of the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative, said they had detected in the vaccinated individuals blood cells that kill HIV. He said this was a p
THREE HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing centres have been set up in Lira district to combat the spread of the disease. the district director of health services, Dr. Peter Kusolo, said this at the recent launching of the multi-sectoral approach on HIV/AIDS control project, Lira chapter, at the district chambers.
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has been selected to deliver the keynote address at the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa award ceremony in New York early next month. The US$200,000 award to be given to four individuals is awarded by The Hunger Project, a global strategic organisation committed to end of hunger. The Hunger Pr
The Hunger Project has hailed President Yoweri Museveni for his continous campaign on food security and the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda . Hunger project is a global organisation committed to end hunger. The project has started awarding individuals who have come out to stop the spread of AIDs in Africa. The Hunger
DELEGATES at the ongoing HIV prevention conference in Kampala have come up with a draft calling for comprehensive programmes to eradicate or drastically reduce vertical transmission of HIV from mothers to infants. The document code-named The Kampala Call To Action, noted that the major obstacles to preventing HIV infec
Drugs for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission are to be available free of charge for all women who test HIV positive, President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday. Charles Wendo reports that Museveni said this in a speech read by health minister Jimmy Muhwezi at the opening of the third conference on the Glo
Philadelphia, USA - An AIDS Vaccine 2001 conference now going on in Philadelphia, USA has highlighted Uganda as one of the African countries supporting the development of HIV/AIDS vaccine. The four-day conference is one of the meetings aimed at speeding up large-scale AIDS vaccine trials. President Paul Kagame of
Government will set up two model centres for low-cost treatment of AIDS to enable poor patients access good care. Henry Chang, the executive director of the US-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said the first centre will be opened in Masaka district on World AIDS Day on December 1. The second centre will be established
Kampala - President Yoweri Museveni yesterday received an award for his exemplary leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The award, Distinguished Leadership Excellence in the Fight against HIV/AIDS in the World, was jointly given by the US-based AIDS Health-care Foundation, the UK s Community Health and Information
THE price of Anti-Retroviral Drugs has dropped from about sh350,000 per month to sh120,000, the director for research and policy in the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC), Prof. John Rwomushana, has said, reports Grace Matsiko. Rwomushana told journalists in Mbarara town on Thursday evening that sh120,000 is the lowest price
Kampala - THE HIV infection rate among women attending antenatal clinics in Uganda has declined further from 6.8% at the end of 1999 to 6.1% at the end of 2000, government officials said yesterday. A surveillance report just released by the Ministry of Health indicates that the decline was sharper in the urban areas, w
Kampala - Two more AIDS vaccines including one developed by the co-discoverer of HIV, Robert Gallo, are to be tested in Uganda soon, reports Charles Wendo. The visiting President of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Dr. Seth Berkley, said this while meeting Presidency Minister Gilbert Bukenya in the VIP
The Uganda Aids commission has launched a new strategy to combat HIV/AIDS, the director of research and planning, Prof. John Rwomushana, has said. He said the project, funded by FAISA Foundation, would be carried out in Arua, Moroto, Gulu, Busia, Pallisa, Kibaale, Kabarole, Kalangala, Rakai and Ntungamo districts. He s
Kampala - OVER 800 children born with HIV/AIDS are receiving treatment at the Mildmay Centre, officials said yesterday. Mrs. Ruth Sims, Director of the Jajja s Home, a day-care centre that looks after children with AIDS at Mildmay, said the children are below 14 years. They receive medicines, food, nutritional suppleme
Iganga - The Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Wilson Weasa, has advised Ugandans to stick to one sexual partner as the only sure way to control the AIDS disease. He said this in a speech read for him by Edgar Manyindo, a mobiliser in the RDC s office during the launching of Open secret, a book and video at Iganga
Kampala - If street children are given a chance to be rehabilitated, they can be useful citizens. This was evident to all who attended the music, dance, drama and poetry competition at Sharing Youth Centre, Nsambya recently. The competition, courtesy of Baaba project , implemented by Goal, attracted hundreds of young p
Kampala - A BRITISH expatriate on social development, Moris Barns, attached to Kabarole Research Centre in Fort Portal has warned of the accelerated spread of HIV due to the introduction of Aids drugs. People may relax in taking precaution on their sexual behaviours with the coming of the HIV/AIDS drugs and this will s
THE number of pregnant women, who accept to take HIV tests has increased following the introduction of treatment that reduces mother-to-child HIV transmission. Prof. Francis Mmiro, the chairman of the national committee for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, said at Mulago Hospital on Thursday that the
Kampala - The UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy yesterday visited the widows and orphans of AIDS patients at Nsambya, reports Juliet Nankinga. Bellamy flew to Uganda on Tuesday evening for the launch of the global Girl s Education Movement. She launched the programme at the Kampala International Conference Centr
KAMPALA - The World Bank through Uganda Aids Commission has committed US$ 50m to NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) all over Uganda, for the prevention of HIV transmission.
The Norwegian government is to establish a special programme for AIDS orphans in Uganda , visiting Norwegian minister of international development Anne Christine Sydnes has said, reports Kezio D. Musoke. She told President Yoweri Museveni yesterday that the Norwegian government is interested in monitoring regional conf
The Director of Mulago Hospital, Mr. Lawrence Kaggwa, has urged the AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) to lobby the Ministry of Health for support, reports Juliet Nankinga. Kaggwa, who was at the weekend addressing the annual general meeting of TASO at Mulago, said the ministry should consider funding TASO to enable it e
KAMPALA - The Director of Mulago Hospital, Lawrence Kaggwa, has urged mothers with HIV/AIDS to use the Niverapin drug to decrease on rate of infection in unborn babies. Kaggwa, addressing the general meeting of The AIDS Support Organisation Uganda , at Mulago at the weekend, said the drugs were in stock at the hospital
Kampala - The recently concluded elections in Uganda have shown that Africans, we are not yet mature for “democracy” There was shedding of human blood of brothers and sisters and all in the names of democracy. Eight innocent citizens were reported dead and others are hospitalised and or soon will die from wounds inflic
THE HIV/AIDS situation in Gulu is still alarming despite a marked decline in the prevalence of the disease since 1993. A study by Lacor hospital s AIDS project on mothers who attended ante-natal clinic between 1993 and 1999 shows that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS within Gulu Municipality declined from 31% in 1993 to 1.9%
THE HIV/AIDS infection rate among women in Uganda has exceeded that of men, an expert has said. Mr. Aramanzan Madanda, a lecturer in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University said on Friday 9.1% of women and 7.6% of men in Uganda have HIV/AIDS. Adolescents are the most infected people with HIV/A
Kampala - The Uganda AIDS Commission is to call a consultative meeting over allegations that American and Ugandan scientists conducted an unethical AIDS research on 415 couples in villages of Rakai district. Critics argue that the researchers let some of the villagers contract HIV and did not treat those who had the vi
IT is day four of the election petition filed in the Supreme Court by former presidential candidate Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye. The hearing is led by Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki. The other judges are Arthur Oder, Alfred Karokora, Wilson Tsekooko and Joseph Mulenga. Joseph Balikuddembe is leading a team of lawyers for the
MOST children want their parents to tell them the truth about their HIV-positive status, a Ugandan researcher has said. This was said in Kampala during the ongoing international AIDS conference on women and children. The research sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development also discovered that m
UNICEF is to support a project to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in Uganda over the next five years, writes Charles Wendo. A country report on women and children just released by Unicef said about 43,000 children are born with HIV in Uganda every year. The report says half of the children could be prevented fr
CHEBET Maikut, the Uganda National Farmers Association (UNFA) president, has proposed that the Government sets up a fund to help farmers with HIV/AIDS afford the drugs, reports Kikonyogo Ngatya. Some of our colleagues in the service sector are being helped in meeting the costs of the expensive drugs. We would also
MBARARA - Stephen Mbugane, the manager AIDS Information Centre has denied allegations in the press that the centre was making profits by carrying out HIV blood tests. He said the centre was not a profit making organisation adding that the sh 2,500 per client was a contribution for the centre.
THE persistence of malaria in Mbarara has caused panic among patients, forcing them to take blood tests for HIV, a health official has said. The manager of AIDS Information Centre, Mbarara branch, Stephen Mbugane, told The New Vision on Saturday, We have tested about 3,000 malaria patients within the last two months.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.