In less than a year, Ugandans affected with HIV/AIDS could be put off capsules and tablets as is the case currently while trials seek to administer antiretroviral treatment (ART) using injectables, the Joint Clinical Rsearch Centre (JCRC) has said.
Prof. Peter Mugyenyi, the Executive Director JCRC confirmed they had applied to start trials on injectable HIV/AIDS drugs here in about a year once they get approval.
Clinical trials will see a person living with HIV receive a shot of injectable ARVs once every three months – which would translate into four injections a year instead of daily tablets or capsules.
In the United States, the research passed the second phase of clinical trials and it is showing promising results.
Dr. Mugyenyi says it is not complicated because the drugs are already known but there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS.
The HIV prevalence rate in Uganda stood at 7.1 percent in 2015 among adults aged 15 to 49, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
“In Uganda, many young people die not because they do not take their medicine. It’s just because the stigma and discrimination around them hindered them from taking their medicine well,” says Lovinka Nakayiza of the Uganda Network of Young people Living with HIV & AIDS, the civic group that organises the annual Miss Young Positive.
The government plans to use treatment to avert 570,000 deaths by 2025 and save 42,620 children from Aids related death by 2025.
