News Coverage

The IDI Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic – a Differentiated Service Delivery Approach used under the IDI Prevention Care and Treatment Department to bridge the gap between pediatric and adult care through offering youth-friendly clinical and psychosocial services.
The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) Training and Global Health Security departments are supporting the Ministry of Health to deliver training on, electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (eIDSR) in priority health facilities in the 60 districts in Uganda
Please take the baseline consultation survey for the HASH project to help us understand the opportunities, risks and limitations of using Artificial Intelligence and data technologies to address key challenges in maternal, sexual and reproductive health.
The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) has consistently supported the national/local government policies, priorities, and strategies (while also contributing to their further development) which has strengthened trust and facilitated the implementation of IDI’s programs. Support has included active participation in technical working groups, coordination structures, government accredited training, and the rollout of innovations. Read more about IDI’s first 20 years here.
The Ministry of Health,Uganda in collaboration with IDI is conducting Emergency Care Trainings across the country to improve care and outcomes of patients presenting with ​emergencies such as COVID-19, trauma, maternal and child, and others.
The Academy for Health Innovation, Uganda under IDI officially launched the Medical Drones research Project in Bufumira island, Kalangala district.
The Academy for Innovation and PCT program under IDI led by Dr. Rosalind Ratanshi and Dr. Isaac Lwanga respectively met with Eco pharm Limited management team led by Mr. Muyinda Nathan the General manager to officially establish the partnership that will serve to enable clients to receive their ARV refills at designated Eco Pharmacy branches in Kampala, Under the Digital PCT (D-PCT) program.
The Minister of State for animal industry Hon. Bright Rwamirama launched the Anti-Microbial Resistance programme at the Dairy Development Authority (DDA) headquarters, which is collaborating with IDI Makerere and other partners
The ANC/iCCM project was designed to maintain or increase the appropriate and safe provision of iCCM and ANC services, with a primary focus on infection prevention and control during service delivery at health facilities and VHTs.
IDI is implementing the ANC/iCCM project in Adjumani and Moyo districts of West Nile with a goal to sustain or increase the appropriate and safe provision of integrated Community Case management of three key childhood diseases.
Collins Canudwoga is a resident of Zombo district and leader of the Zombo District People Living with HIV/AIDS Network Forum a community-based organization (CBO) that has set out to create awareness on HIV/AIDS and cooperate with people within the communities in the fight to end HIV/AIDS.
With funding from CDC, the IDI/CDC Alcohol-Based Hand Rub Project within the IHR Global Health Security Program (GHSP) began operations in border districts to increase access to handwashing facilities and ABHR use in health facilities and community locations along truck routes and border crossings
In an effort to address these challenges, the USAID PACT Karamoja is working with community-owned resource persons to provide TB screening services in high-burden parishes, support referrals from communities to the facilities…
USAID Support Improved TB Patient Tracking Among Nomadic Populations in Karamoja Sub-region
68-year old Aleper Margaret Chepotee from Kukayim village, in Amudat town was diagnosed with TB at Amudat Hospital. She is one of the TB patients who have been successfully traced by USAID Program for Accelerated Control of TB in Karamoja (PACT Karamoja)’s community teams
CallforLife in Karamoja
“Patrick invited me to be enrolled on a digital platform known as CallforLife®, which would provide me with education messages about TB, answer any questions about medicine side effects, and remind me to take my medicine on time”
Medication Saved Wambi, He Wants it to Save Others
“If it wasn’t for this medication, I would not be alive today. I had a family to take care of and the best option was to start treatment immediately and ensure consistency. Many years later, I am healthy and alive”, Alex says.
USAID PACT Karamoja project worked in partnership with the National TB and Leprosy program and the district health teams to improve TB screening in all health facilities within the region with a particular focus on the lower level health facilities which are closest to the communities.
Dr Juliet Setumbwe, the director of Animal Resources at the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries has recognized the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) for having hosted the One Health and environmental activities.
IDI handed over an assortment of items to Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development represented by the Commissioner for Youth and Child Affairs; Fred Ngabirano, and the Commissioner for Gender and Women; Angella Nakafeero at the Uganda Child Healthline in Kireka
The Infectious Diseases Institute, with funding from PEPFAR through Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) supported the setup of a Medically Assisted Therapy (MAT) centre at Butabika National Mental Referral Hospital for People Who Inject with Drugs (PWIDs).
Dr Miriam Laker-Oketta, a Medical doctor and Clinical Research Scientist at the Infectious Diseases Institute has been selected by the International Women’s Forum (IWF) to be part of the 2020-2021 Fellows Program. She is the first fellow from East and Central Africa to be awarded.
Dr Aggrey S. Semeere a physician and researcher with IDI has been appointed as a Principle Investigator at the East African International Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA-EA),one of seven regional data centres funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health to provide a rich resource for globally diverse HIV/AIDS data.
The Executive Director, Dr Andrew Kambugu and Dr Mohammed Lamorde head of the Global Health Security programme met with the Hon. State Minister for Animal Husbandry Bright Rwamirana and the Permanent Secretary Mr Pius Wakabi Kasaija at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries offices in Entebbe.
It is estimated that 5 of every 10 TB patients in the Karamoja region completes treatment successfully and only 3 of 10 get cured. This region of 9 districts and an estimated population of 1.2million was declared by the Ministry of Health as having one of the highest TB burdens in Uganda.
The IDI-led consortium -CAPA-CT II, funded by @EDCTP program published a method for measuring quantity of experimental drug for #COVID19 in patient blood samples. This team is the first to openly publish a method for quantifying remdesivir in blood.
The Executive Director Dr Andrew Kambugu has been named on the scientific group for the UN 2021 Food Systems Summit. The search committee sought African voices from disciplines related to food systems.
IDI joined Rakai Health Services Program, an IDI implementing partner as a partner in the region and has since mentored 651 VHTs in COVID-19 surveillance for Rakai and Kyotera.
Scottish clinical and scientific experts are spearheading a campaign to bust myths and combat misinformation in the battle against Covid-19 in Uganda.
The Centres of Disease Control (CDC) in collaboration with Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) channelled out its efforts towards building local capacity in Kasese district in the production and distribution of Alcohol Based Hand Sanitizer (ABHS) as a means of improving hand hygiene practices as an Ebola preparedness strategy.
Every year the world commemorates World TB Day on March 24th, the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis (TB).
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health under its Case Management structure has started training of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDT) on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) Global Health Security Programme (GHSP) and Health Systems Strengthening E-AMAKA project organized a three-day Infection Prevention and Control training for 20 Voluntary Medical Male Circumcisers (VMMCs).
With support from Resolve To Save Lives, the Executive Director of the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Dr. Andrew Kambugu today, Friday 13th March, 2020 handed over equipment worth UGX310 Million to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to prevent, detect and respond to public health threats at Points of Entry (PoE).
Over 80 countries have been affected by the Corona Virus across the globe and the case fatality is currently at 3.4%. Many myths and assumptions about the virus have circulated in public, which has caused panic. In case of an outbreak, are we ready to respond?
Infectious Diseases Institute has been commended for its passion, unconditional commitment and dedicated service towards pharmacovigilance. Pharmacovigilance is the monitoring of the effects of medical drugs after they have been licensed for use, especially in order to identify and evaluate previously unreported adverse reactions. This award was handed over at the launch of the MedSafety App at the 3rd Annual Pharmacovigilance Stakeholders Round-table Meeting held at Golf Course Hotel on 26th February 2020.
Uganda has received three pioneering laboratory machines to speed up the process of testing and treating patients for bacterial infections as part of the Fleming Fund Country Grant, which is aimed at helping low and middle income countries tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The machines automate part of the laboratory tests that identify the bacteria causing a patient’s infection and can deliver results to doctors up to 18 hours quicker, saving critical time in the diagnosis of life-threatening conditions.
On 3rd December 2019, Infectious Diseases Institute through the Dolphin 2 study team participated in an exhibition during the 20th International Conference on AIDS & STIs in Africa, Kigali – Rwanda Convention Centre. This was under the theme “Understanding the Safe and effective use of Dolutegravir for mothers (and their babies) who present with untreated HIV in late pregnancy”. The exhibition aimed at dissemination of quantitative and qualitative results for DolPHIN 2 study and to create awareness about DolPHIN 2 study.
On 20th August 2019, the Prime Minister of Uganda officiated at the launch of the NAPHS 2019 – 2023 under the slogan “Securing Uganda Against Health Threats”. The plan comes in to address the gaps identified during the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) conducted in June 2017, in compliance with the International Health Regulations (IHR), 2005. The event was graced by several high level dignitaries including Hon. Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng.
NTI | bio, in partnership with the Next Generation Global Health Security Network, announced the winners of the 2018 Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition. Peter Babigumira Ahabwe of the Infectious Diseases Institute, Uganda along with two others [Dr. Frances Butcher, Oxford School of Public Health, UK and Javier Rodriguez, National Commission of Atomic Energy, Argentina] were named winners of a 15,000 USD grant. Their proposal, “Act Like a Pro: Scenario-Based eLearning for the Next Generation of Biosecurity Learners,” is an openly accessible online platform for students and entry-level professionals to engage in scenario based learning in biosecurity.

Esther was an Afya Bora fellow in Global Health leadership 2017/18. The Afya bora Consortium which was conceived to train health professionals in leadership, consists of nine universities in Africa, the Unites states of America and China.

To its already rich pool of courses, IDI is excited to announce new Quality Management Systems courses (QMS) for laboratory personnel, namely

The management of the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) has raised a concern to the Ministry of Health about unscrupulous individuals intending to discredit the work of IDI in the field of HIV and AIDS programming. This is occurring in a context where IDI management recently instituted a criminal investigation (CRB – 323/2018) against two former employees.

Congratulations to Dr. Mohammed Lamorde on his new executive role at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) as Chair of Africa Network.

ISPOR is the leading professional society for health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) globally. The ISPOR Africa Network is a group within the organizational structure of ISPOR that consists of ISPOR regional chapters from different countries in Africa. It also constitutes approximately 5000 academics, researchers and industry experts.

Researchers from the University helped to deliver a free training course in Uganda this month (18 – 20 April 2018) for students and researchers from or based in developing countries to help in the management of poverty-related diseases.

The VirTUAL Consortium (Vulnerable patient Tuberculosis AntiretroviraL), which is led by the University’s Institute of Translational Medicine, is an international initiative to optimise the safe and effective treatments of poverty related diseases including HIV and TB using a combination of clinical trials, pharmacokinetic modelling and capacity building approaches. Together this aims to improve current understanding of drug disposition in complex clinical scenarios and provide a flexible platform for identifying clinical strategies with application to other disease areas.

This year’s UNAIDS Global AIDS report- “Miles to go” noted that the number of AIDS-related deaths was lowest this century, with fewer than 1 million people dying each year from AIDS-related illnesses.
This is in part a result of sustained access to antiretroviral therapy which has seen a record 21.7 million people enroll on treatment. In order to sustain these significant gains, the report calls for scale up of access to treatment by global institutions working towards an AIDS-free world.
On a hot sunny Saturday morning on March 24, 2018, district officials and implementing partners in Arua district kicked off the celebrations commemorating World Tuberculosis & Leprosy day with a five kilometer run and thereafter converged at Booma grounds. Opening remarks were made by the Deputy mayor of Arua Kalusum Abdul who welcomed all stakeholders and partners with special thanks to the guest of honor Honorable Sarah Opendi, the State Minister for Health and General Duties.

At the regional follow up event during the Presidential Fast track initiative(PFTI) celebrations held in Hoima at the end of February 2018; Dr. Lisa Nelson the Ugandan CDC country Director in her speech was impressed by the level of HIV services coverage in the region. She thanked the Government and IDI a key implementing partner for offering comprehensive HIV care and treatment in the region.

On October 3, 2017 in Johannesburg South Africa, the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) launched an Alumni network whose goal is to foster Excellence and Collaboration in the next generation of researchers.

IDI supports ART differentiated service delivery models to improve client retention in care

To support the continuous assessment and tracking of medicine supply chain management, the Ministry of Health (MOH) with support from Uganda Health Supply Chain (UHSC) project established a system known as Support Supervision Performance Assessment and Recognition Strategy (SPARS). As an implementing Partner, IDI is mandated to support the MOH Medicine Management Supervisors (MMS) to execute the health facility assessments across Masindi and Kiryandongo districts using the SPARS tool.

In the second last week of November, the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) welcomed the Ugandan Country Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Lisa Nelson to the West Nile region where IDI is currently implementing the Comprehensive HIV/AIDS service delivery project, which also covers South Sudan refugees and a One-Health Global Health Security Project (GHSP).

On June 28 in Masindi district and on June 29, 2017 in Hoima district, the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) organized and held the second Annual Performance Review meeting for its Western Region Comprehensive HIV/AIDS project funded by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).