Rwanda News

Eliminating Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa 

KIGALI, July 17, 2018 – The Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) will gather from 17-19 July 2018 in Kigali, national Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Programme Managers and partners at its first annual meeting. The objective is to review the regional and national progress towards NTDs elimination in Africa.

The World Health Organization Country Office Representative and the Rwandan Minister of state in charge of Public Health and Primary Health Care were at the Kacyiru hospital to further enhance public health emergencies preparedness and response. 

Rwanda has organized from 14 to 18 May 2018 its annual Integrated Mother and Child Health Week. The Mother and Child Health week takes place twice a year and serves as an opportunity to catch up with health services provision, particularly to the hard to reach, the drop out and the most vulnerable. The Mother and Child Health Week was integrated in the African Vaccination Week and the World Malaria Day celebrations.

The Ministry of Health with WHO support organized from 12 to 16 March 2018, a multisectoral workshop on the initial self-evaluation of IHR using the Joint External Evaluation(JEE) tool.

The workshop was opened by Dr Innocent Turate, Head of Department of IHDPC/RBC, who reminded participants that this workshop is a key step for the strategy to achieve the SDG n° 3.d focusing on international public health threats prevention and control.

Context and Issue

• Rwanda suffered a catastrophic genocide against the Tutsis in 1994
• This disaster and the ensuing war resulted in total disruption of the country’s health system including immunization service delivery.
• Following this incident, the national immunization coverage was very low (less than 30% in 1995) and incidence of vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) was high (e.g 28,000 measles cases in 1995);
• Only 6 traditional vaccines were provided in routine immunization programme in 1994.

WHO contribution

During his two day visit to Rwanda from 11 to 12 January 2018, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, applauded the Government of Rwanda for supporting immense growth in its health sector.
 

Starting Friday 15th of December 2017, Rwanda banned the smoking of water-pipe tobacco popularly known as shisha countrywide.

The Minister of Health, Dr Diane Gashumba issued a ministerial order banning shisha use in country based on WHO’s concerns about the harmful effects of Shisha tobacco on human health and recommendations to all Countries, Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control(FCTC Parties).

Rwanda has officially launched a two month countrywide Governance and Family Campaign starting with the Mother and Child Health Week and providing integrated interventions to millions of Rwandans aimed at improving health. The Mother and Child Health Week was conducted from 9th to 13th October 2017 with technical and financial support from stakeholders, including WHO.