Mulago delivers second IVF baby

(The proud parents, Salim Malinga and Sayeed Rukusana)
Kampala, Uganda |INDP | Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital has successfully delivered their second baby under in vitro fertilisation (IVF), an assisted reproductive technology modality used to treat infertility. The parents are Salim Malinga and Sayeed Rukusana.

Speaking to journalists at a press conference, Dr. Sam Ononge, the Acting Hospital Administrator, revealed that the facility, which officially opened in 2018, only got to start its IVF program in August last year and has so far had eleven mothers get pregnant under this approach. Of these, two have been successful, with the previous one having delivered earlier on 31 May 2025.

The facility has, since last year, run twenty-eight IVF cycles, but medics explain that only eighteen were able to complete their cycle, which involves egg retrieval, preparation treatments, scans and transfer of embryos to the womb.

Dr David Nsibambi, who heads the fertility unit of the hospital, explains that of these, eleven got pregnant, but four of these pregnancies were not viable.

Doctors congratulate the couple
The doctor notes that apart from IVF, the hospital is seeing a high and increasing number of couples seeking other fertility treatments, saying that each week, they receive an average of seventy-eight patients with fertility problems.

Meanwhile, this service has been available in the country for a long however, it has been out of reach for many, considering that its cost may go up to the high of fifty million shillings depending on where one seeks the service from.

At the government-run hospital, Ononge says this service has been highly subsidised to allow access to more people with infertility problems. According to him, their charges range between fourteen to fifteen million shillings, depending on what one needs to conceive.

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