In The News

Infectious Diseases Institute Celebrates 5th Anniversary

IDI Celebrates Accomplishments, Continues Fight Against Infectious Disease in Africa

October 20, 2009, Washington, DC: On October 20, 2004, the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) officially opened its doors. Over the past five years, it has become a true center of excellence in sub-Saharan Africa, continuously expanding its services and outreach. Today, IDI continues to grow and innovate, serving the healthcare needs of the people of Kampala, Uganda, and Africa.

IDI was launched as a result of the visionary leadership of fourteen physician scientists from North America, Europe, and Africa. This “Academic Alliance” created Accordia Global Health Foundation, which, in partnership with Pfizer Inc and Makerere University, established IDI. The Institute builds healthcare capacity through training, mentoring, research, laboratory services, and prevention activities. To date, IDI has trained more than 4,500 African healthcare professionals from 27 African countries who have returned to their communities to train thousands more. Their efforts are saving lives and strengthening communities throughout Africa. 

 The IDI training and treatment model and its success have been widely recognized and celebrated, and aspects of it are being exported to and replicated in other settings in Uganda and other African countries. In a recent speech, the U.S. Global Aids Coordinator, Ambassador Eric Goosby, said:

 “[IDI is one of the] leading regional HIV/AIDS training, research and infectious diseases clinics on the continent… The IDI provides high quality treatment for HIV/AIDS patients while simultaneously using the clinic as a platform for training physicians, nurses and other health care workers, conducting research, and developing models of integrated HIV/AIDS prevention and care that are widely applicable throughout Africa…. Today, it serves as a model of health systems strengthening and quality service delivery directed under complete local ownership and expertise.”

 Some of IDI’s most recent accomplishments include launching a program to improve HIV/AIDS services in the rural Kiboga and Kibaale districts with plans to expand to three more rural districts in the next few months, and helping to create and implement a malaria training curriculum that has been adopted by Uganda’s Ministry of Health and will expand to twenty additional sites in Uganda by the end of 2009. IDI is also improving care for its patients through separate clinics created to address the specific needs of HIV-positive adolescents, discordant couples, and people who have dual diagnoses of HIV and tuberculosis.

 Accordia Global Health Foundation is proud of its history of involvement with this internationally respected and recognized center of healthcare excellence in Africa and looks forward to many more years of collaboration and partnership.