Unique AIDS centre for Africa opens at Mulago
May 02, 2004
AN AIDS Treatment Information Centre (ATIC), the first of its kind in Africa has opened at the Institute of Public Health
By Barbara Bitangaro
AN AIDS Treatment Information Centre (ATIC), the first of its kind in Africa has opened at the Institute of Public Health, Mulago Hospital.
The unique centre will provide answers to all queries from health workers on HIV/AIDS care and management for the entire African region.
Its vision is to develop a sustainable framework for the provision of a specialist AIDS treatment information service which will enhance AIDS care in Africa and serve as a model for other resource-limited settings.
This vision will be achieved partly through a state-of-the-art call-in centre, manned by clinical pharmacists and physicians specialised in HIV/AIDS. So far, over 70 queries from Uganda and Botswana on clinical management of HIV/AIDS cases have been answered.
According to Robinah Nganwa, HIV clinical pharmacist at ATIC, the centre will only answer queries from health care providers. This will encourage patients to seek medical services from only trained health care professionals and promote rational drug use. In this way, the emergence of drug-resistant strains will be avoided.
Another reason is that patients cannot be counselled and treated on phone although health workers attending to them can call ATIC for professional advice. The high-tech system allows a health worker to call at no cost.
“The phone number of the caller will be automatically registered by the system so that next time the person makes a phone call it will be free,†Saul Kidde, ATIC programme coordinator revealed.
The system automatically develops a database for the number of calls and frequently asked questions. ATIC hotlines are tentatively 041-542352/542283.
The centre also has a quarterly newsletter, ATIC News, which runs articles on biomedical research, continuing medical education and experiences of people in the field of care and management of HIV/AIDS.
A website for the centre will be in place this month with renowned specialists being hosted for discussions on HIV.
ATIC was established on the rationale that the introduction of enhanced HIV/AIDS care with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the western world had led to reductions in HIV-related death and sickness. It was also noted that recent substantial price reductions and the arrival of generics had made it possible for more Africans to access antiretrovirals (ARVs).
“Using these drugs however, can have adverse reactions. They are not very dissimilar to cancer drugs and can be very toxic,†Professor David Serwadda, the Principal Investigator ATIC told a meeting earlier this year.
Some of the other ARV complications, he said, included drug resistance, drug interactions that render other drugs a patient may be taking ineffective, storage and the many new drugs on the market.
“I have been to conferences where patients were taking as many as 60 pills a day. Health workers need a place where they can ask questions and get answers,†he said.
ATIC has links with the Infectious Diseases Clinic Mulago Hospital providing clinical services for both adults and children.
It is also involved in training medical personnel in different organisations on how to handle ARVs. It is one of seven programmes under the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa (AA).
The AA is an alliance between nine Ugandan and five North American scientists with Makerere University and Mulago Hospital as senior partners whose mission is to build capacity for delivering sustainable high-quality HIV/AIDS care and prevention in Africa through training and research.
AN AIDS Treatment Information Centre (ATIC), the first of its kind in Africa has opened at the Institute of Public Health, Mulago Hospital.
The unique centre will provide answers to all queries from health workers on HIV/AIDS care and management for the entire African region.
Its vision is to develop a sustainable framework for the provision of a specialist AIDS treatment information service which will enhance AIDS care in Africa and serve as a model for other resource-limited settings.
This vision will be achieved partly through a state-of-the-art call-in centre, manned by clinical pharmacists and physicians specialised in HIV/AIDS. So far, over 70 queries from Uganda and Botswana on clinical management of HIV/AIDS cases have been answered.
According to Robinah Nganwa, HIV clinical pharmacist at ATIC, the centre will only answer queries from health care providers. This will encourage patients to seek medical services from only trained health care professionals and promote rational drug use. In this way, the emergence of drug-resistant strains will be avoided.
Another reason is that patients cannot be counselled and treated on phone although health workers attending to them can call ATIC for professional advice. The high-tech system allows a health worker to call at no cost.
“The phone number of the caller will be automatically registered by the system so that next time the person makes a phone call it will be free,†Saul Kidde, ATIC programme coordinator revealed.
The system automatically develops a database for the number of calls and frequently asked questions. ATIC hotlines are tentatively 041-542352/542283.
The centre also has a quarterly newsletter, ATIC News, which runs articles on biomedical research, continuing medical education and experiences of people in the field of care and management of HIV/AIDS.
A website for the centre will be in place this month with renowned specialists being hosted for discussions on HIV.
ATIC was established on the rationale that the introduction of enhanced HIV/AIDS care with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the western world had led to reductions in HIV-related death and sickness. It was also noted that recent substantial price reductions and the arrival of generics had made it possible for more Africans to access antiretrovirals (ARVs).
“Using these drugs however, can have adverse reactions. They are not very dissimilar to cancer drugs and can be very toxic,†Professor David Serwadda, the Principal Investigator ATIC told a meeting earlier this year.
Some of the other ARV complications, he said, included drug resistance, drug interactions that render other drugs a patient may be taking ineffective, storage and the many new drugs on the market.
“I have been to conferences where patients were taking as many as 60 pills a day. Health workers need a place where they can ask questions and get answers,†he said.
ATIC has links with the Infectious Diseases Clinic Mulago Hospital providing clinical services for both adults and children.
It is also involved in training medical personnel in different organisations on how to handle ARVs. It is one of seven programmes under the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa (AA).
The AA is an alliance between nine Ugandan and five North American scientists with Makerere University and Mulago Hospital as senior partners whose mission is to build capacity for delivering sustainable high-quality HIV/AIDS care and prevention in Africa through training and research.