The Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Dr. Monica Musenero, has revealed that plans are underway for Uganda to start manufacturing vaccines for monkey pox.

Minister Musenero made the revelation while appearing before Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee on October 1, 2024, to provide an update on some of the projects being undertaken at her ministry.

“The teams are coming from Africa and from outside; we are going to work on a strategy to make sure we create diagnostics, vaccines, and the drugs against monkey pox, which is the next big thing that has already been declared a public health,” Musenero said.

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Musenero also revealed that although the government described her plans to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in Uganda as wastage of taxpayer’s money, Uganda was able to raise UGX 140Bn from some of the research undertaken under that project, like the sale of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) kits.

“During COVID-19, we started doing some research—that very popular research—and many people looked at it as a waste of money. So far, we have been able to generate UGX 140Bn, and some of this money has come from outside through orders; they were able to order, and Uganda being a leader, supplying things for the continent, this is something we just started in 2020 during COVID-19. We were very humbled that the World Health Organization ordered things from us because we took a very bold initiative,” Dr. Musenero revealed.

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She further revealed plans by the government to get rid of all fuel motorcycles in Uganda and replace them with electric motorcycles in order to improve the quality of air in the country.

“We are supporting a lot of private sector players who are transitioning our motorcycles from fuel to electric. I think Uganda is the fastest moving in terms of that; we have a goal of eliminating those fuel motorcycles from the streets. Our air here is very bad, especially in the city. So we are working to eliminate that,” Dr. Musenero said.

According to reports by the World Health Organization, Uganda is currently facing an outbreak of monkeypox, with the first cases confirmed in July 2024. As of early September, the country reported a total of 10 confirmed cases and 49 contacts under monitoring across various regions, including Kampala and several districts such as Kasese, Amuru, and Mayuge.