OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Tuesday 10.30PM.
FORTY Ugandan volunteers will try a French-manufactured AIDS vaccine when trials start in Kampala, Ugandan Health Minister Crispus Kiyonga announced on Tuesday.
Kiyonga told the Ugandan parliament that the vaccine was already in the country and that his ministry had received permission to start the trials from the National Council of Science and Technology and the cabinet.
The drugs have been jointly imported into the country by the Ugandan government and the UN programme on AIDS, which has spearheaded two months of negotiations between the suppliers and local health officials. Because the cost of the drugs is beyond the reach of most Ugandans, they will be heavily subsidised by both the government and manufacturers.
Kiyonga said that up to 1.9 million Ugandans are infected with the HIV virus which causes AIDS, and that about 400000 people have died from the disease since it was first detected in the country in 1982. AIDS carriers constitute between 10% and 25% of the urban population and between 4% and 10% percent in the rural areas.