Uganda opens first HIV drug factory

Uganda has unveiled plans to open its first factory producing AIDS and HIV treatments.

The factory aims to make locally produced anti-retroviral drugs, as well as anti-malaria medication, available to Ugandans by January, according to the Ugandan health ministry.

And the government hopes the factory will cut the cost of vital medication by reducing import costs.

"Ugandans will have access to a regular supply of medication and also we hope it will be cheaper, because we will be eliminating the element of transportation and manufacture in foreign countries," said health minister Dr Stephen Malinga.

While Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS and malaria, Uganda has cut its numbers of HIV/AIDS sufferers from a peak of 30 per cent in the 1990s to single figures.

However, the World Health Organisation estimated in 2005 that one million Ugandans were living with HIV/AIDS.