Uganda has emerged as a pioneer in Africa to champion standardisation of the latest technology used in biomedical imaging for diagnosis and subsequent treatment of various medical conditions. Uganda, through its standards agency – the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), is the only country in Africa that is part of 10 countries participating in the developing of ISO standards for equipment that use microbeams and x-rays to carry out diagnosis of various medical conditions. At the national level, the UNBS Technical Committee on Metrology (UNBS TC 08) has taken the lead on this matter. Consequently, international delegates from China,…

One of the challenges facing Uganda’s health sector is the lack of health workers and facilities. The dip in health workers availability is somehow brought about by insufficient training centres in the country. Many of the health training centres are owned by government and are not well equipped. However private high learning institutions like Victoria University are moving fast to bridge the gap. The University located on Jinja Road has set its eyes on having the best medical school and they have started doing something about it. “Our labs are very modern, advanced and fully functional. We have the most…

A Ugandan Female innovator, Philippa Ngaju Makobore, came second at the 2017 edition of the coveted Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA). She returned home with a cash prize of $25,000 after her project known as Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF) wooed judges. The Innovation Prize for Africa is organized by African Innovation Foundation (AIF). The 2017 awards, which were held in Ghana, welcomed hundreds of entries from outstanding innovators. The top ten nominees won cash prizes. For the first time, IPA nominees included innovators from Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Zimbabwe, and featured a stronger presence of…

The Ministry of Health has been tasked to support domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers in doing business in Uganda, the line minister, Sarah Opendi, said in a statement this week. The minister explained that supporting domestic production of human and veterinary medicines and health care products will reduce reliance on imports, and contribute towards national, development aspirations of industrialization as provided for in the current vision 2040. This move, the minister added, fits well in the NRM manifesto, the health Sector Development Plan (2015- 2020) National Pharmaceutical Sector Strategic Plan (2016 – 2021), and the National Drug Authority Strategic Plan (2016 –…