India-Africa Health Summit
September 26, 2001 Mumbai

Statement by Hon'ble Captain Mike Mukula, Minister of State (General Duties) of
The Republic of Uganda

Mr. Chairman,
Honourable Ministers,
All other dignitaries present in your different capacities,
Distinguished participants,
Summit organizers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my greatest pleasure and honour to be with you here during this summit. First of all, may I take this opportunity to convey to you warm greetings from the Government and people of the Republic of Uganda. My country Uganda and the Republic of India enjoys a warm and fraternal relationship. It is our wish that this good relationship continues to grow stronger. Secondly, I want to thank most sincerely the organizers of this summit for inviting me. It is my honour to attend this very important summit.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, permit me to make some country-specific statements on behalf of Uganda. Uganda views this India-Africa Health summit to be extremely important. This summit will give Uganda government in general and me in particular the opportunity to learn more about India's capabilities in the field of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and health care services. It will also provide us with an opportunity for building more partnership between the two sister nations. For this reason, I am most grateful that Uganda has been given the opportunity to attend the summit.

This summit is important to Uganda in many dimensions. Looking at the objectives and programme of the summit, the deliberations that are expected to take place will cover a wide range of very important health related topics. In particular, the subjects of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and health care services are very relevant to Uganda. Uganda is plagued with a lot of health conditions that can be addressed by use of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. These health conditions include both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Top on the list of common communicable diseases in Uganda is HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS epidemic hit Uganda in the early 1980s. Since then, the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has grown to unacceptable level. Currently the country has a big burden due to HIV/AIDS. Over 2 million Ugandans cumulative have been infected with HIV since the onset of the epidemic. Of these, about 800,000 have already died of AIDS, about 1.1 million are currently living with HIV and about 100,000 people are living with the AIDS disease. All these people need care in one form or another.

The above figures show that Uganda has a big burden due to HIV/AIDS. This burden has affected different sectors of government, the health sector being one of the worst affected. Specifically for the health sector, some of the main burdens due to HIV/AIDS include: over 50% of the beds in medical wards are occupied by patients with HIV/AIDS related problems, there has been a rise in bed occupancy due to HIV/AIDS on the medical wards from 50% in 1990 to 70% in 2000; the number of reported TB cases has gone up by six times between 1986 and 1999; AIDS is now one of the top five causes of death in children; health expenditures in Uganda has dramatically gone up; and the treatment costs for AIDS patients using antiretroviral drugs remain very high and unaffordable by many Ugandans.

The other main effects of HIV/AIDS on the country are chronic ill health or deaths of the most productive population sector leading to loss of agricultural production slowing down of the growth of economy.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, in addition to the problems due to communicable diseases, Uganda is also beginning to experience upsurges in the occurrences of non-communicable diseases. Notable among this category of diseases are those diseases that are related to the heart. Heart diseases are becoming more common. In view of this, there is increasing demand for facilities that are required to deal with these conditions.

This health summit is therefore extremely important. India seems to be well endowed with pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and health care systems that can be used to manage the health problems brought about by both the communicable and non-communicable diseases that I earlier alluded to. I say this because Uganda has been collaborating with India in these areas. Specifically, the following collaborations have taken place: 1; Uganda has been sending a number of its citizens with heart conditions for management in India. 2; Ugandans have been coming to India for training in the fields of pharmacy, medicine, business management and so forth. 3; Uganda has been getting generic HIV/AIDS drugs from some of India's pharmaceutical industries. 4; Uganda has been getting drugs for treatment of some of the communicable diseases from India. This is just to give some examples of existing areas of collaboration. During this summit, I look forward to using the opportunity of being here to explore additional areas of collaboration between the Republic of India, other African countries and the Republic of Uganda. I sincerely believe that a lot can be achieved by strengthening the partnership between our countries.

To conclude, I warn to pledge my personal support and that of the government of Uganda for the strategy of regional cooperation in the delivery of social services. Through the strategy of regional cooperation, we can improve on the quality of services and lives in our countries by assisting one another, for example, by training of citizens from sister countries, technology transfer, using medical facilities from sister countries, accessing cheaper but good quality drugs that have been produced in the region and so forth.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, let me end by conveying my deepest and most sincere appreciation for the hospitality and facilitation so far extended to me by the organizers of the summit. I am most grateful for the facilitation extended to me which has enabled me to travel over here to attend this summit. Once again I thank the organizers of the summit for inviting me.

To everyone present here, I thank you for paying attention and listening to me.