25 Aug Moses ‘Supercharger’ Nsubuga

Ten years ago, the famous Ugandan dancer, musician, DJ and radio reporter Moses ‘Supercharger’ Nsubuga traveled back to his home town in Uganda to die. He was very sick although he was taking his HIV drugs. Moses had developed HIV drug resistance. To save costs on transporting a dead body to the village for burial, Moses traveled in his “coffin” in the booth of a pickup…… The end of a popstar. By chance Moses encountered with Dr Cissy Kityo, Deputy Director of the Joint Clinical Research Center in Uganda. Dr Cissy knew that she could save Moses’ life by evaluating him for resistance, changing his HIV drugs to effective ones and providing valuable adherence support. Moses got better and returned to Kampala. From those days on, Moses became the voice of HIV drug resistance awareness in Uganda. He started the ‘stigmaless band’, a group of HIV positive children who become the advocates for healthy living with HIV; singing and dancing, raising funds at numerous shows to take care of themselves and their peers. Moses started radio programs, talk shows and other events to put HIV and in particular HIV drug resistance into the picture. By that time JCRC became partner of the Pan-African Studies to Evaluate HIV Drug Resistance (PASER) and the Affordable Resistance Test for Africa (ARTA) initiatives of the PharmAccess Foundation and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development. JCRC made very important contributions to these studies, providing hard evidence for emerging HIV drug resistance in East Africa. PASER and ARTA are proud to present Moses as their Ambassador for Advocacy. Visit the YouTube channel to find the most recent videos by Moses, who is ‘alive and kicking’. He has become the personal embodiment that HIV treatment works, as long as adherence is realized and resistance avoided.

Click here for the YouTube channel