By Shamim Nateebwa:
The Minister of Health is this morning expected to receive the Cobalt 60 Radiotherapy machine.
According to the ministry spokesperson Vivian Serwanja, the long awaited cancer machine will be handed over at the Radiotherapy Department in Mulago.
The machine arrived in the country last week after almost two years of waiting.
The Uganda Cancer Institute director, Dr Jackson Orem revealed earlier in an exclusive interview with Sunday Monitor that installation is expected to last at least one month.
The Radio Therapy machine was shipped from Czech Republic through Mombasa port with guidance of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations body that regulates use of nuclear and atomic energy.
Purchased at Euros 642,000 by both government and IAEA, the machine replaces the old cobalt 60 radiotherapy machine donated to Uganda by China in 1995 which broke down beyond repair in March last year leaving about 2,000 patients without proper treatment, with some hundreds dying from the disease.
