Dr Charles Olaro, the Director-General of Health Services in the Ministry of Health (left) cuts the ribbon at the Uganda Virus Research Institute’s 90th anniversary celebrations. Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of UVRI (2nd right) and Dr Samuel Okware, Director General of the Uganda National Health Research Organisation. COURTESY PHOTO/UGANDA VIRUS RESEARCH INSTITUTE.
SPECIAL REPORT | For nine decades, the Uganda Virus Research Institute has hunted pathogens, helped uncover viruses that would shake the world, and built a reputation far beyond Uganda. As it turns 90 and assumes a new regional role, its scientists say the next challenge is more ambitious: Africa must not only detect the diseases that threaten it but also increasingly develop the vaccines, diagnostics and treatments needed to defeat them, Ronald Musoke reports. On July 22, senior government officials, scientists, researchers and development partners gathered on the sprawling campus of the Uganda Virus Research Institute on the outskirts of the lakeside town of Entebbe to celebrate an unusual milestone.
From an institute established in 1936 primarily to investigate yellow fever, UVRI has grown into one of Africa’s important centres for infectious-disease research, surveillance and outbreak response. Its history is intertwined with the discovery and study of viruses that subsequently became household names thousands of kilometres from Uganda. Its scientists have worked on HIV, Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley fever, polio and a succession of emerging and re-emerging infections.
But July 22 was not simply an occasion to look backwards. Uganda unveiled a new regional polio laboratory and formally launched UVRI as the East African Community Centre of Excellence for Virology, giving a 90-year-old institution an expanded mandate at a time when the region continues to confront outbreaks capable of moving rapidly across national borders. President Yoweri Museveni, whose speech was delivered at the celebrations by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, described the designation as more than an honour.
It was, he said, “a call to responsibility to do more for our region.” The symbolism was difficult to miss. UVRI began life studying one dangerous virus. Nine decades later, it is being asked to help an enti…
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