President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has called for stronger bilateral ties between Uganda and the United Kingdom in public health, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and scientific research.
The President made the appeal on Friday during a meeting at State House Entebbe. Uganda's High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Nimisha Madhvani, led the visiting British delegation.
The delegation featured British politician, health consultant, and Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group Hon. Beccy Cooper, alongside Ugandan diaspora health professionals working in the UK.
President Museveni emphasized that preventative health strategies remain the central pillar of Uganda's medical response, offering a cost-effective alternative to disease treatment.
“Our main emphasis is public health prevention because when you prevent disease, you solve many problems,” President Museveni said. “Through immunisation, we have eliminated or controlled diseases such as smallpox, polio and tuberculosis. If you add nutrition, safe water, hygiene and behavioural change, you eliminate almost 80 percent of diseases.”
He explained that while communicable diseases are being controlled, the country is expanding interventions toward non-communicable conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and cancer.
“We are trying to change our doctors from concentrating mainly on curative medicine to putting greater emphasis on prevention,” President Museveni stated.
President Museveni urged British pharmaceutical firms to establish manufacturing plants in Uganda, leveraging local natural chemotherapeutics research to produce vaccines and essential drugs for the wider African market.
Reflecting on his student days, President Museveni shared a personal story about contracting smallpox and praised the British physician who managed his care.
“I still remember Dr. Allport, a British doctor, who diagnosed and isolated me after I contracted smallpox,” President Museveni said. “That experience strengthened my appreciation for health workers and the importance of public health.”
Hon. Beccy Cooper applauded Uganda's regional leadership in halting disease outbreaks and maintaining progressive humanitarian policies for refugees. She pledged to mobilize British pharmaceutical investors to partner with Ugandan scientists in vaccine production.
“There are companies in the UK that would be interested in collaborating with Uganda, particularly in pharmaceutical manufacturing and vaccine production,” Hon. Cooper stated. “We will look for opportunities and bring them here and work together with your scientists.”
Diaspora representative Mr. Moses Bulimira expressed the readiness of Ugandan healthcare specialists in the UK to return and transfer technical knowledge back home.
Minister of State for Primary Health Care Hon. Dr. Charles Ayume noted that nearly 970 Ugandan nurses are currently serving within the UK's National Health Service, underscoring strong human resource exchanges between both nations.
