Background: The Ugandan Ministry of Health has endorsed voluntary medical male circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy and has set ambitious goals (e.g., 4.2 million circumcisions by 2015). Innovative strategies to improve access for hard to reach, high risk, and poor populations are essential for reaching such goals. In 2009, the Makerere University Walter Reed Project began the first facility-based VMMC program in Uganda in a non-research setting.
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RV 156: A Phase I Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of a Multiclade HIV-1 DNA Plasmid Vaccine, VRC-HIVDNA009-00-VP, in Uninfected Adult Volunteers in Uganda. Site Principal Investigator: Fred Wabwire-Mangeni, MBChB, PhD. Collaborations: Vaccine study conducted by US military Research Program and Makerere University Walter Reed Project. Vaccines provides by Vaccine Research Centre VRC/NIAID/NIH Bethesda Maryland. Background and rationale: the global impact of the HIV epidemic is staggering. In developing countries and segments of the US population, anti-HIV therapies are frequently beyond financial reach. Read Full Publication Here
As we celebrate HIV/AIDS Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD), the Uganda HIV Vaccine Interest Group (VIG) wishes to share with the Ugandan community the efforts towards finding an HIV vaccine. We are committed to the vision of an AIDS-free generation in Uganda and globally through the development of a vaccine to prevent HIV. Currently, more than a million Ugandans are living with HIV and every year more than 140,000 Ugandans become newly infected with HIV, of these approximately 15,000 are children. This is in spite of Uganda’s efforts in increasing access to HIV treatment and prevention strategies which include education, voluntary counseling and testing, condom use, voluntary medical male circumcision and prevention of mother to child transmission.
To end the HIV epidemic, a safe, effective and widely accessible preventive HIV vaccine will be needed in addition to the existing prevention strategies. Vaccines are one of the most effective prevention tools known for many infectious diseases and therefore the world is looking at an HIV vaccine discovery as important landmark that will combat the epidemic. Read more »
Annual Report 2013.
The Makerere University Annual Report 2013. report is based on the thematic areas outlined in the Makerere University Strategic Plan 2008/09-2018/19.
It highlights the achievements and key focus areas for the calendar year 2013.These give a broad overview of the University’s efforts towards her Mission:To provide innovative teaching, learning, research and services responsive to National and Global needs.