RESEARCH Fred Hutchinson partners Uganda Cancer Institute to launch cancer genomics program

UGANDA – Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has partnered with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to launch “Cancer Genomics and Genomic Data Science for East Africa,” and additional programs to train East African researchers in cancer genomics and foster future researchers. This program is funded at US$1.25 million over five years and builds upon research that explores the genomics of breast cancer, lung cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Kaposi sarcoma.

Additionally, with a total investment of US$1.36 million over five years, a second research training program aims to support masters and doctoral training, prepare fellows to pursue independent research funding, and will include the establishment of a Peer-Mentoring Career Development program. Five Ugandan fellows will serve as principal investigators in one of the Collaboration’s studies.

This program trains specialists who

Government

the researchers at the New Jersey-based company, but they were determined to find new treatments. While no HIV vaccine has passed clinical trials, various drugs are used in high-risk populations and patients. Meanwhile, HIV vaccine candidates from Moderna Inc, HVTN, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are currently being tested.

then train their colleagues in clinical care and research and mentor new oncologists, hematologists, and other healthcare workers through the Adult Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program, with funding from the African Development Bank to the East Africa

Centre of Excellence in Oncology at the Uganda Cancer Institute.

President of Nigeria signs Mental Health Bill into law, as industry cheers move

NIGERIA – The President of Nigeria, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has signed the harmonised Mental Health Bill into law. Following the signing of the bill into law, it will be illegal to subject mentally ill persons to forced treatment, seclusion, and other methods of restraint in mental health facilities. The Bill, which was harmonised by the Senate and House of Representatives in 2021, will replace the Lunacy Act of 1958 condemned by mental health experts as “outdated and inhuman”.

The President of the Association of Psychiatrists of Nigeria, Prof. Taiwo Obindo, who confirmed the signing, described it as a great relief to the mental health care and practice in the country.

Some provisions of the National Mental Health Bill include creating a Department of Mental Health Services in the Federal Ministry of Health and a Mental Health Fund.

The Mental Health Bill seeks to establish human rights protections for those with mental health conditions against discrimination in housing, employment, medical, and other social services. Improving care by guaranteeing those receiving treatments have the right to participate in formulating their medical plans and eliminating forced treatment, seclusion, and other methods of restraint in facilities, additionally, expanding community-based coverage.