Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of child mortality in Rwanda, along with malaria and pneumonia. According to a research done by the Kigali University teaching hospital CHUK, 30% of all cases of acute diarrhea leading to the death of many children are caused by a virus known as rotavirus.
Although HIV/Aids is no longer the killer disease that it was in the 1980s, it is still a big threat to everyone and efforts in fighting it continue to be extensive all around the world. To this end, the United Nations made this fight part of the Millennium Development Goals in article 6A which aims to have halted the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 and begun to reverse it and in 6B which targets universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it by 2010.
Over the past two decades, great strides have been made in Africa in general and Rwanda in particular in the reduction of child mortality. This is mainly the result of improved neo-natal care and increased efforts to eradicate preventable diseases such as malaria, as well as wider access to health care.
Rose Kanani, 58, from Kibilizi sector, Nyamagabe district of Southern Province was born with a cleft lip, and for nearly sixty years she had no hope of receiving surgery. Not only was she from a poor family, but at the time there was simply no treatment for the condition.
Jean de Dieu Rwagahungu from Rubavu district, western province, is anxious for people not to see his mouth, which is why constantly keeps it covered with a small piece of cloth. “I cover my lips so that people may not make fun of me,” he says.
If you have used a taxi-motor lately and didn’t put on a thin white head cover under your helmet, be informed that you have broken the law. The latest health regulation indeed requires passengers to wear one in order to prevent diseases being transmitted by helmets worn by numerous people.
A course on “global health delivery,” a method which looks not just at the medical issue on hand but also the entire socioeconomic situation of the patient, is being taught for the first time outside Harvard university, in Rwinkwavu, Kayonza district. As the Minister of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho explained, the course is not about [...]
A 6-month campaign against the malnutrition, which was launched about a month ago, has been gathering pace.
The number of women dying while giving birth has been greatly reduced in Rwanda, mostly thanks to the increased number of women giving birth in a health-care facility attended by a qualified health care professional.
For Health Minister Agnes Binagwaho, 2012 must be the year of eliminating malnutrition in Rwanda; this is of capital importance, she says, because an unhealthy diet in an individual or at the community level impacts negatively on people’s well-being as well as on society as a whole.
