Uganda becoming global hub for health research – Experts

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Uganda is preparing to hold a conference on antimicrobial resistance next week, a week later they will also hold the annual scientific conference.

The two come after big international health conferences on Universal health coverage and Oone health happening in the country a month ago.

For all of them, more than 200 international delegates have been invited and yet still the trend will continue into the new year as scientists are already submitting research abstracts for the Global Health summit happening here in April and targeting up to 2000 international delegates.

This new trend is raising questions of whether these add any value to a health system that has often been described as broken.  Dr. Ekwaro Obuku, the President of the Uganda Medical Association said these conferences are providing an opportunity for doctors to share what they are seeing in laboratories since they have over the years been criticized for being theoretical and failing to turn their work into socioeconomic transformation.

Another researcher, Dr. Charles Batte said this trend shows that Uganda is becoming a global hub for health research.

Batte who is a Makerere University College of Health Sciences based Health Economist says the country has gained clout because of previous success in fighting HIV/AIDS, guinea worm and coverage of immunization that to date remain a challenge to a lot of countries in Africa.

For Dr. Alfred Driwale who heads the Uganda Expanded Programme on Immunization at the Ministry of Health said Uganda is preferred because it has successful tested interventions that have turned out to be policy in many other countries. He points out to early HIV discovery studies to new prevention techniques whose efficacy has established in the country.

For him, the move by government to start funding research which was a preserve for donors with an allocation of shs30billion to health research this financial year is an indicator that what scientists study is key in informing policy and tackling public health emergencies.

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