While the race to find safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines continues, African countries are signing up to a ground-breaking initiative, which aims to secure at least 220 million doses of the vaccine for the continent, once licensed and approved.All 54 countries on the continent have expressed interest in COVAX, a global initiative which is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The partners are working with governments and manufacturers to procure enough vaccine doses to protect the most vulnerable populations on the continent. Through the Gavi-coordinated COVAX…

The ministry of health has announced that it has postponed the Measles-Rubella (MR) national vaccination campaign from the scheduled dates of 25-29, September 2019 to 16-20 October 2019. They didn't give a reason for the postponement in the announcement posted on their social media pages. The ministry received more than 20m doses of Measles-Rubella vaccine worth $19m. The vaccines were procured by UNICEF with support from GAVI to protect more than 18m children aged 9 months to 15 years. In a press statement dated Thursday, 18 July 2019, UNICEF said they had received the last batch of the vaccines. On…

Importers of medicine into Uganda will be a higher verification fee effective August 1st, 2017, the minister for health Sarah Opendi said in a statement released on Monday. “Government of Uganda will increase verification fees from 2% to 12% on 37 selected medicines that are locally manufactured. These include A moxillin, Albendazole, Dextrose Infusion, Paracetamol, Oral Rehydration Salts to mention but a few,” he minister said in the statement. The minister explained that this selection was made following the Ministry of Health and NDA’s assessment of the domestic manufacturers’ capacity to sufficiently meet the demand for the 37 selected medicines.…

Uganda’s President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has revealed that a specialized, state-of-the-art hospital that was recently flagged for construction at Lubowa in Wakiso District will help the developing country save a whopping $186m per as patients will no longer fly out of the country to seek specialized medical attention. The project, a partnership between government of Uganda and FINASI, an Italian firm, is expected to be completed in the next 24 months. The President noted that this facility will be the key referral centre for Ugandan patients and the first of its kind in the East African region to have a…