Mulago opens new $1m buildings
Dec 07, 2003
THE United States Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson, ended his three-day anti-AIDS fact-finding mission to Uganda by commissioning two new buildings at Mulago Hospital worth more than US$1m.
By Alfred Wasike
THE United States Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson, ended his three-day anti-AIDS fact-finding mission to Uganda by commissioning two new buildings at Mulago Hospital worth more than US$1m.
Accompanied by 120 top US anti-AIDS scientists, legislators and business persons, Thompson hailed Uganda’s globally acclaimed success against the scourge.
He pledged to lobby for more funding for Uganda on top of the US$136m to cover two years from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
With tearful eyes after listening to HIV positive children and adults sing about the devastating effect of the pandemic, Thompson opened the ultra modern Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinic recently renovated by Uganda and the US’ Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at US$750,000.
Health minister Brigadier Jim Muhwezi said the children’s clinic is the only one of its type in Eastern Africa. He pledged that Uganda would account for every coin that donors send here.
The head of the ward, Dr Phillipa Musoke said hundreds of children were diagnosed for HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and treated.
She said 80% of the children need anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).
One of the children, Brian Nganwa, 12, sent the audience into tears when he recited a poem in which he warned that AIDS was a real danger and that he contracted the HIV from his parents.
Thompson also commissioned a US$709,361 complex for The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) called The Pfizer Foundation Building.
TASO founder, Noerine Kareeba, looked up at the two storeyed building and solemnly said, “This virus claimed my husband and very many other people but it did not know how much anger and anguish it left among the living.
“This building is a resolve that we shall conquer it one day. We shall overcome it one day.â€
Thompson also visited the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe, where he toured stalls exhibiting Uganda’s multi-sectoral strategy against AIDS.
“This has been a very inspiring trip, a very moving trip, a very transforming trip and an eye-opening trip.
“Uganda is a very extra-ordinary example of how President Museveni’s visionary leadership has not only lowered the infection rate but offered a way for the rest of the world to follow,†he said after he toured the UVRI labs.
“I am confident that with the cooperation of my scientists the preventive methods by Ugandans and other allies, we shall find a cure to end this suffering,†he said.
The Global Fund executive director, Prof Richard Feachem, also hailed Uganda for successfully controlling AIDS.
He called for “redoubled efforts to produce the AIDS vaccineâ€.
He said the UVRI is one of the most famous in the world.
A USAID official Anne Peterson said they had adopted Uganda’s anti-AIDS strategy of ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms).
Ends
THE United States Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson, ended his three-day anti-AIDS fact-finding mission to Uganda by commissioning two new buildings at Mulago Hospital worth more than US$1m.
Accompanied by 120 top US anti-AIDS scientists, legislators and business persons, Thompson hailed Uganda’s globally acclaimed success against the scourge.
He pledged to lobby for more funding for Uganda on top of the US$136m to cover two years from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
With tearful eyes after listening to HIV positive children and adults sing about the devastating effect of the pandemic, Thompson opened the ultra modern Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinic recently renovated by Uganda and the US’ Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at US$750,000.
Health minister Brigadier Jim Muhwezi said the children’s clinic is the only one of its type in Eastern Africa. He pledged that Uganda would account for every coin that donors send here.
The head of the ward, Dr Phillipa Musoke said hundreds of children were diagnosed for HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and treated.
She said 80% of the children need anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).
One of the children, Brian Nganwa, 12, sent the audience into tears when he recited a poem in which he warned that AIDS was a real danger and that he contracted the HIV from his parents.
Thompson also commissioned a US$709,361 complex for The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) called The Pfizer Foundation Building.
TASO founder, Noerine Kareeba, looked up at the two storeyed building and solemnly said, “This virus claimed my husband and very many other people but it did not know how much anger and anguish it left among the living.
“This building is a resolve that we shall conquer it one day. We shall overcome it one day.â€
Thompson also visited the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe, where he toured stalls exhibiting Uganda’s multi-sectoral strategy against AIDS.
“This has been a very inspiring trip, a very moving trip, a very transforming trip and an eye-opening trip.
“Uganda is a very extra-ordinary example of how President Museveni’s visionary leadership has not only lowered the infection rate but offered a way for the rest of the world to follow,†he said after he toured the UVRI labs.
“I am confident that with the cooperation of my scientists the preventive methods by Ugandans and other allies, we shall find a cure to end this suffering,†he said.
The Global Fund executive director, Prof Richard Feachem, also hailed Uganda for successfully controlling AIDS.
He called for “redoubled efforts to produce the AIDS vaccineâ€.
He said the UVRI is one of the most famous in the world.
A USAID official Anne Peterson said they had adopted Uganda’s anti-AIDS strategy of ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms).
Ends