President Yoweri Museveni has challenged local 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 noted.

The President made the remarks during the Joint Clinical Research Center (JCRC) 30th Anniversary celebrations held at the centre’s headquarters in Lubowa, along Entebbe Road, Wakiso District where he was the chief guest.

He said: “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 and if we can capture those, then we could get a common denominator in the variants of the virus and recognise it. 

“Then later 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 despite the mutations?” he inquired.

“You know how much these vaccines can solve problems. In the other century, we had a very bad problem with smallpox, it killed a lot of people in 1893 but when the vaccine was introduced, it disappeared. I don’t think that smallpox still exists now. Therefore, I challenge the scientists especially our scientists to wake up and deal with these problems instead of just sitting and waiting for others to work.”

The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, thanked the President for spearheading the HIV/AIDS fight in Uganda and commitment to end AIDS by 2030. 

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,” Dr. Aceng noted.

Prof. Charles Ibingira- Chairman Board of Directors of JCRC hailed the President 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.

The Executive Director of JCRC, Dr Cissy Kityo highlighted that the centre has played a vital role in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the region by pioneering the use of HIV drugs in sub-Saharan Africa in 1992 and importing the first generic HIV drugs from India to bring down the costs and subsequently became the case study for the architecture of the PEPFAR.

At the same event, President Museveni commissioned the first-ever bone marrow transplant centre at JCRC headquarters. He also laid a foundation stone and signed off a master plan of the new proposed cell and gene therapy centre.