Entebbe, Kilifi, November 28, 2022 The National Institute for Health and Care Research (

The CEO of Gavi Dr Seth Berkley recently visited Uganda from 2-7 November 2022. As part of his visit, the CEO had a tour of the UVRI campus on Monday 7 November 2022. The CEO was accompanied by colleagues from Gavi and officials from Ministry of Health.

The Princess Royal started the four-day Uganda visit on 25th October 2022  at the Medical Research Council (MRC), Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Ugandan Research Unit. She was welcomed by Prof Kaleebu who gave her a tour around the campus and was able to see a variety of research work projects currently ongoing.

Uganda Virus Research Institute received a new state-of-the-art laboratory for research, detection, and capacity building into animal viruses. The laboratory in Entebbe was officially commissioned on Tuesday and handed over by the United States Ambassador to Uganda, Ambassador Natali E. Brown.

The training on Modern Viral Diagnostic technologies was hosted by the Uganda Virus institute under the umbrella of The Pan-African Network for Rapid Research, Response, Relief and Preparedness for Infectious Disease Epidemics (PANDORA-ID-NET) which is the EDCTP funded project. The training was on the use of PEBBLE device which is a molecular diagnostic platform for point of care testing in combination with ApoH-technologies magnetic beads which is viral capture, concentration and isolation technology.