Uganda Bans Zambian Aids Drug

The Uganda National Drug Authority has put on alert drug inspectors atentry points and intensified surveillance of a controversial AIDS drug, herirontinasiferon, imported from Zambia.

"The Authority has never been contacted nor authorized the importation of such a drug," Deus Mubangisis, the NDA's acting executive secretary, told the New Vision newspaper.

A consignment of the drug worth $1 million was imported late last month into Uganda, a report from Zambia's capital Lusaka said. Zambian professor Mulenga Lukwesa, the drug's inventor, claimed that his patients found the drug effective. However, the Zambian Health Ministry has banned the use and sale of the drug until competent international medical institutions have assessed it.