WAKISO, October 31, 2023 – President Yoweri Museveni days ago donated Shs100 million to the SACCO belonging to the staff of the Joint Clinical Research Centre [ JCRC ].
Museveni donated the money as he commissioned the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit where he urged Ugandan scientists to fast-track the development of the HIV/AIDS vaccine.
“It’s good that you are waking up, and we must get the vaccine,” he said as he congratulated JCRC for the Bone Marrow Transplant Centre which you have just opened here.
Museveni was speaking as Chief Guest as JCRC held its 30th Anniversary celebrations held at its headquarters in Lubowa, along Entebbe Road, Wakiso District.
He underscored the role of vaccines in solving problems such as epidemics.
“I’m surprised that you have taken so long to get a vaccine because during the AIDS Conference in Florence Italy, I don’t remember which year it was, there was quite a bit of optimism that we would get the vaccine even me I was almost becoming like a Molecular Biologist; I was following very closely because that time we were saying that the problem with this AIDS virus is that it mutates but then people were saying that although it’s mutating, some portions of it don’t change,” he said.
He added: “And if we can capture those, then we could get a common denominator in the variants of the virus and recognise it. Then later alone I heard that no, this virus is very dangerous because it enters your defence system and that is why it is not detectable. Now what are we doing about this enemy? What happened to that theory of the common denominator in spite of the mutations?”
At the same event held on Friday, Museveni also laid a foundation stone and signed off a master plan for the new proposed cell and gene therapy centre.
He however revealed that he is trying to persuade some religious people who think biotechnology and gene therapy interferes with the work of God.
“We have been doing it for a long time. I have been a genetic engineer for a long time because we the cattle keepers always select the good breeders which will produce more milk, there are some bulls which produce only females, we the cattle keepers are the people who appreciate females more than anybody else. If your cows are producing mainly male bulls, then you are very unlucky because what do you do with the bulls? But if they are producing females, they are good because you have a bigger breeding population,” Museveni stressed.
“So, I want to convince my religious people that we have been doing that because of the performance criteria of those bulls. We are doing engineering but using the slow way of aggregating these genes. Now these scientists, because they have the whole chain of genes, they can know which one is causing problems and deal with it, just like we are doing it in breeding. We can also do it using this laboratory based method. It is not a new practice,” he added.
A bone marrow transplant is a procedure that infuses healthy blood-forming stem cells into your body to replace bone marrow that’s not producing enough healthy blood cells. A bone marrow transplant is also called a stem cell transplant whereas gene therapy involves altering the genes inside one’s body’s cells in an effort to treat or stop disease.
On the other hand, the Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng thanked Museveni for spearheading the HIV/AIDS fight in Uganda and commitment to end AIDS by 2030.
“We thank you for your continued support to the health sector and your vision to have a healthy and productive population that contributes to socio- economic growth and national development,” Aceng said.
The Minister also attributed the improvement in the HIV/AIDS statistics in Uganda to the use of a multi-sectoral approach in partnership with the country’s development partners.
“The Joint Clinical Research Centre has made significant contributions on each step of the journey that we have taken towards the end of HIV/AIDS as a public health threat and we expect it to make a significant contribution in the last mile of this journey in ending AIDS by 2030,” she noted.
Prof. Charles Ibingira, chairman Board of Directors of JCRC hailed Museveni for taking a bold decision to address the HIV challenge head-on at a time when his revolutionary leadership was required most because the disease was new, and many lives were lost at that time.
“People were dying right and left, we had no hope, but because of your vision, the situation changed. Your great vision to start JCRC to intervene and address the desperate situation that the Ugandans were in and the untold suffering with HIV/AIDS is a clear demonstration of your great leadership and care for Ugandans. We can never thank you enough for this,” he added.
The Executive Director of JCRC, Dr. Cissy Kityo highlighted that the centre has played a vital role in the fight against the HIV/AIDS in the region by pioneering the use of HIV drugs in sub-Saharan Africa in 1992 and imported the first generic HIV drugs from India to bring down the costs.
“Your Excellency, our researchers have worked and continue to work tirelessly to discover new insights, treatment and solutions to some of the most challenging issues facing our nation and region. JCRC has been part of groundbreaking research that has contributed to Global knowledge and informed change of policy and guidelines and the course of the medicines we are taking,” Kityo said.
She added that the center is now leading the first study in Africa with evaluating new HIV drugs which are given as injections every two months instead of taking pills every day.
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