IGIHE

Category: Health

  • Children Aged 9-15 to be Vaccinated Countrywide

    Rwanda Ministry of Health has announced that children aged between 9-15 will be vaccinated across the country from 12th March to 15 March, 2013.

    According to Minister of Health Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, children will receive a vaccine which is a combination of two elements that fights against measles and Rubella,

    “It’s the first time the vaccine is introduced in the country for massive public Health campaign.” Binagwaho revealed.

    Since 2006 to 2012, cases of rubella disease and measles have increased across the country.

    In 80s, more than 40 000 children were dying yearly due to measles which has the same signs as the ones of Rubella.

    “Today no child dies of measles as there is its vaccine. The next step is to call upon parents to vaccinate their children,” said Maurice Gatera Head of Vaccine Preventable Diseases Division-Institute of HIV/AIDs, Disease Prevention & Control at Rwanda Biomedical Centre.

  • More European Women to Die of Lung Cancer

    Lung cancer is set to overtake breast cancer as the biggest cause of female cancer death in Europe, say experts.

    This is already the case in the UK and Poland, the Annals of Oncology reports.

    The rise reflects a surge in the number of women who started smoking in the 1960s and 1970s, the experts say.

    The lung cancer death rate will continue on its upward trend for the next few years – but with fewer young European women now starting to smoke, it should decrease with time.

    In 2013, some 82,640 European women will die from lung cancer, while 88,886 will die from breast cancer.

    And by 2015 the balance will have shifted and lung cancer will take the lead, according to Prof Carlo La Vecchia and colleagues.

    BBC

  • Over 15,000 Medical Workers to Be Re-Assessed

    Following the arrest of four health workers operating without proper academic docments, IGIHE has established that the problem of fake academic documents is much wider.

    The National Council for Nurses and Midwives has organised re-assessment exams for several health practitioners with suspected fake academic documents.

    About 15,000 applications from nurses and midwives are set to be re-assessed.

    Munyandinda Jean Bosco in charge of administration and finance at the NCNM told IGIHE that the council is in process of reviewing those applications and grant a license to nurses and midwives that qualify.

    He said that the exercise takes time given the amount of applications they have received.

    As soon as the final list of nurses and midwives who fall into this category is known , the council will set an exam for them to validate their qualifications.

    Munyandinda noted that some nurses and midwives who studied outside of Rwanda bring fake diplomas into the Rwanda medical profession.

    More than 25 cases had been discovered and were handed over to the court and police.

    Rutavogerwa Janvier, the legal adviser of the council told IGIHE that it is difficult to review applications from nurses and midwifes who completed their studies outside Rwanda especially those from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    In this situation, the council normally contacts councils from other countries to know if applicants had successfully completed their studies in the medical field.

    He said that it is easy for the council to contact its counterparts in Kenya, Uganda, among others but when it comes to DRC it is challenging because the council from there doesn’t exist.

    The council want to make sure that those practicing the medical profession in Rwanda are really qualified in order to protect the public from medical malpractices said Rutavogerwa.

    He mentioned a case at “Kamonyi Centre de Sante” in 2012 where a woman who was about to give birth was neglected by nurses and midwives to the point the baby died. Two nurses were definitely suspended. A situation like this is not a welcome in Rwanda`s medical field, said Rutavogerwa.

  • UN urges African Firms to Embrace Ethics

    The United Nations has urged business leaders in Africa and the Middle East to embrace ethical and sustainable practices in order to succeed in modern economic environment.

    Speaking on the side-lines a UN Global Compact forum in Nairobi on Monday, the organisation’s humanitarian coordinator, Mr Modibo Toure, said that businesses can no longer afford to ignore issues like labour rights and climate change if they want to succeed.

    “The pursuit of ethical standards is congruent to the bottom line. You can no longer strengthen one without the other,” Mr Toure said.

    The forum has brought together business leaders and government officials from Africa and the Middle East.

    He added that the presence of a rigorous ethics culture in African economies will go a long way in attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).

    The UN Global Compact is a platform that engages the private sector in developing solutions to improve social and economic equity across the globe.

    During the two-day forum in Nairobi, business leaders are expected to take stock of international progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

    They will also come up with recommendations for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will come into effect following the expiry of the MDGs in 2015.

    “Different regions will have different priorities for the SDGs. We have to marry all these concerns,” he said.

  • Rwandans to Celebrate International Condom Day

    Rwandans will on February 13, join the rest of the world to celebrate the international condom day.

    Aid Health Foundation Rwanda in partnership with MOH and other stake holders will coordinate the celebrations.

    During the celebrations, a number of activities will be conducted including; testing and counseling, free distribution of condoms, road shows among others.

  • France & Britain Promise Punishment in Horsemeat Scandal

    France Britain promised on Saturday to punish those found responsible for selling horsemeat in beef products at the heart of a growing scandal that started in Britain but is quickly spreading to France.

    French Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon said an investigation had found that the horsemeat had originated in Romania, although there were links with French, Dutch and Cypriot firms and a factory in Luxembourg.

    British environment minister Owen Paterson said more cases of contaminated food could emerge as British retailers conducted tests for horsemeat on processed beef products.

    The scandal threatens to affect consumer confidence in Europe’s giant food industry, with pressure rising for greater checks.

    The British unit of frozen foods group Findus began a recall this week of its beef lasagne from retailers on advice from its French supplier, Comigel, over concerns that some packs contained high levels of horsemeat.

    Findus France said it too had recalled lasagne and two other products after discovering that they included horsemeat from Romania rather than beef from France as it had thought.

    Hamon said an EU-wide alert had been sent out and that it was not yet clear whether there had been an intentional fraud or the meat had been sold as beef by accident.

    Agencies

  • Study Shows Stroke Survivors Think About Suicide

    One in 12 stroke survivors thought about suicide or that they would be better off dead, a troubling federal survey reveals.

    That’s more than those with other health problems such as heart attacks or cancer, and it suggests that depression after stroke is more serious than many had realized.

    “It was surprising” and shows a need for more treatment, said the study’s leader, Dr. Amytis Towfighi of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

    “When patients have their depression treated they’re more motivated to take their medication, do therapy and live a full life.”

    The study was discussed Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

    More than 6 million Americans have had a stroke; about 800,000 occur each year in the U.S. Studies suggest that up to a third of stroke survivors develop depression, but few have looked at suicidal thoughts — one sign of how serious it is.

    “It’s not necessarily active suicidal thoughts with a plan, but perhaps wishing you hadn’t survived the event,” Towfighi explained.

    She used the National Health and Nutrition Surveys, a government project that gives checkups and questionnaires to a representative sample of adults. More than 17,000 people were surveyed from 2005 through 2010.

    They included 678 who had suffered a stroke; 758 who had had a heart attack; 1,242 with cancer, and 1,991 with diabetes. Researchers don’t know how long ago these problems occurred of if people were still being treated for them.

    They were asked a question that many studies use to gauge suicidal thinking: “Over the last two weeks, how often have you been bothered by thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself?”

    About 8% of stroke survivors reported such thoughts, compared to 6 percent of heart attack survivors, 5% of those with diabetes and 4% with cancer.

    Suicidal thoughts were more likely in people who scored high on depression tests, were younger, overweight, less educated, poor, female or unmarried.

    Depression may develop partly because strokes damage the very thing that controls mood — the brain, said a neurologist with no role in the study, Dr. Brian Silver of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital.

    “It’s not necessarily the reaction to the disease … it’s also the disease itself that is causing the depression,” by releasing harmful chemicals that can trigger it, he said.

    Suicidal thinking is a well-known problem, but this study “puts a number on it” and shows the need to watch for and treat it, Silver said.

    Associated Press

  • Gunmen Kill Heatlh workers in Nigeria

    Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead nine health workers who were administering polio vaccinations in two separate attacks in Nigeria’s main northern city of Kano on Friday, police said.

    No one claimed responsibility but Islamist militant group Boko Haram – a sect which has condemned the use of Western medicine – has been blamed for carrying out a spate of assaults on security forces in the city in recent weeks.

    The shootings will hit efforts by global health organizations to clear Nigeria of polio – a virus that can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection.

    “Gunmen opened fire on a health center in the Hotoro district killing seven, while an attack on Zaria Road area of the city claimed two lives,” said police spokesman Magaji Musa.

    “They were working for the state government giving out polio vaccinations at the time of the attack,” Musa added.

    Boko Haram killed hundreds last year in its effort to impose Islamic law, or sharia, on a country of 160 million split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

    The group is seen as the most serious threat to the stability of Africa’s top energy producer, and Western governments fear the country could become a base for operations of al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups in the Sahara.

    President Goodluck Jonathan has highlighted links between Boko Haram and Saharan Islamists and said that relationship justified his decision to join efforts by French and West African forces to fight militants in Mali last month.

    In 2003, northern Nigeria’s Muslim leaders opposed polio vaccinations, saying they could cause infertility and AIDS.

  • Campaign to Nab Doctors With Fake Academic Docs

    Government has launched a massive campaign to nab fake medical practitioners in the country.

    The campaign conducted in collaboration between Ministry of health and Ministry of education targets practitioners with fake academic certificates.

    Mostly the problem of fake academic certificates was reported in the Districts of Nyagatare, Karongi and Kayonza.

    In a press briefing, Minister of Health Dr. Agnes Binagwaho said there is a problem of Medical personnel who use fake academic documents and that may affect Health sector.

  • Fake TB Drugs Found in Kigali

    Substandard tuberculosis (TB) drugs have been found in Kigali and also said to be in full circulation in Africa, India and other developing countries.

    The increased fake drugs in circulation have prompted the rise of treatment-resistant strains of TB, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

    Investigators in the United States asked local people in 19 cities in 17 countries to purchase isoniazid and rifampicin, the frontline antibiotics for tuberculosis (TB), from a private-sector pharmacy.

    Out of 713 samples, 9.1% failed these basic quality-control tests, according to the inquiry, published in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

    Around half of the failed samples had zero active ingredients, “making them likely to contribute to drug resistance”, it said.

    Dud drugs were manufactured by legitimate companies and criminal fraudsters, the report said.

    The drugs were purchased at pharmacies in Luanda, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Lubumbashi, Cairo, Addis Ababa, Accra, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, Nairobi, Lagos, Moscow, Kigali, Dar-es-Salaam, Bangkok, Istanbul, Kampala, and Lusaka.

    The failure rate was 16.6% in Africa, 10.1 percent in India and 3.9 percent in Brazil, China, Thailand, Turkey and Russia.

    Nearly nine million people around the world have TB, one of the world’s deadliest diseases, including more than 400,000 with a multidrug-resistant form of the disease, according to estimates for 2011 compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    Drugs that do not work is a contributing factor to resistance to TB drugs, along with treatment that fails to kill the bacteria.

    TB is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. It is spread from person to person through the air and usually affects the lung.

    Agencies