Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), a government-research entity, said the country is looking at two types of long-acting injectable Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to tame the HIV/Aids epidemic in the country.
Dr Cissy Kityo, the JCRC executive director, yesterday said one of the injectable ARVs is given once every two months and the other is given once every six months, allowing convenient dosing for patients.
She said the available treatment today is at least one pill a day but before this, patients used to take many pills noting that this left them fatigued from taking pills every day.
Dr Kityo added that they are currently doing research across Uganda, Kenya and South Africa, this is the first study of its kind that is coordinated by the JCRC to evaluate these injectable ARVs on the African continent.
She said this would be essential in addressing the issue of low adherence to medication by decreasing the frequency of taking pills.
She said low adherence is a major challenge to the country’s ambition of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Dr Kityo spoke yesterday on the sidelines of the JCRC 15th Annual HIV Update Meeting in Kampala, which happened a day after the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) revealed that more than 51,000 new HIV infections and more than 17,000 deaths were registered in the country in FY2022/2023.
