By Jamil Kato
The African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) has recognizes one of Africa’s luminaries, H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, as the ASLM Champion for improving health laboratory services in Africa.
Drawing from his bold vision, strong Pan-Africanism, the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the Global Agenda 2030, President Museveni has demonstrated outstanding leadership and impeccable commitment to improving health services in general and the laboratory sector specifically for Uganda and the entire continent.
Ministry of Health PS Dr. Daina Atwine received the award on behalf of H.E. President Museveni today at the ongoing ASLM Special Convention on Diagnostics in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where she was accompanied by the Director General of Health Services Dr. Henry Mwebesa and the Commissioner for Laboratory Services Dr. Susan Nabadda.
Here is President Museveni’s Award citation, as presented by Nqobile Ndlovu, CEO of ASLM:
“ASLM is honored to recognize one of Africa’s luminaries, H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, as the ASLM Champion for improving health laboratory services in Africa. Drawing from his bold vision, strong Pan-Africanism, the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the Global Agenda 2030, President Museveni has demonstrated outstanding leadership and impeccable commitment to improving health services generally and the laboratory sector specifically for Uganda and the entire continent.
Among his many lasting legacies, President Museveni has:
1. Been at the forefront of initiating and growing the African Union CDC, believing in African solutions for African problems.
2. Led the fight against epidemics in Uganda as chairperson of the multi-sectoral national task force. For example, under his leadership, Uganda set a world record in containing the Ebola outbreak in just 69 days.
3. During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Museveni demonstrated exceptional leadership by personally taking charge of the national response. He showed his trust in the centrality of the laboratory sector in pandemic surveillance and management. Uganda became one of the reference points for COVID-19 management on the continent, with the lab sector playing an outstanding role.
4. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, President Museveni had provided international leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS. At a time when the science behind the disease was still emerging, and while many leaders were procrastinating, President Museveni took a bold stand on the need for testing, abstinence, condom use, and treatment for those infected. With testing at the center of the strategy, Uganda reduced HIV prevalence from 18% of the general population to the current 5.7%. The country has since expanded testing to all health facilities, pioneered self-testing, and is now scaling up the production of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for HIV/AIDS.
5. Based on this support, Uganda was the first country to host the WHO TB Supra National Reference Laboratory (SRL) in upper Sub-Saharan Africa. Established in 2013, the TB SRL has supported over 21 countries across the continent to improve their management of tuberculosis.
6. Under President Museveni’s leadership, Uganda has invested in building local capacity for the production of laboratory diagnostics, calibration, biosafety, and biosecurity, in addition to scaling up the training of biomedical engineers, laboratory technologists, and laboratory scientists at all levels.
7. Under his guidance, Uganda has deployed its laboratory sector to discover and contain pathogens of international public health concern, including Zika, Ebola, and COVID-19.
8. Besides the outstanding achievements registered by the laboratory sector in Uganda, ASLM and the AU CDC recognize President Museveni’s significant contribution to supporting the growth of the lab sector, pandemic preparedness, and management across the continent. In 2014, Uganda was one of the few countries that deployed medical personnel to support Liberia in fighting the worst Ebola outbreak. Currently, Uganda is supporting the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda in containing the ongoing Marburg outbreak.
9. Uganda is hosting the Global Fund-ECSA HC International Lab Systems Strengthening (ILSS) Project, which supports 23 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve their laboratory services.
10. In October this year, Uganda successfully hosted the Regional ECSA-HC Meeting for Ministers of Health and Laboratory Directors from East and Central Africa. This meeting developed new initiatives to move the laboratory sector to the next level.
11. Uganda is currently the Chair of the Laboratory Directors in Africa, leveraging its resources and expertise to support lab advocacy across the continent.
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