Category: Health

{{Following findings that Youth in Gasabo District lack access to reproductive health information and services the District has decided to train them on the issue to avoid further negative consequences.}}

District officials have urged the trainees to share experiences among other people and help them to know the importance of their reproductive health.

Youth are being trained in reproductive health, about HIV/AIDS, Family planning issues and fighting against Drug abuses and thereafter they will return and train other youth in their respective sectors.

Mungwarakarama Deo in charge of Kabuga Youth Centre has said many youth in the District need to know more about their health reproduction.

It is expected that after completing a four-day training they will be aware of programs related to reproductive health.

From 2005-2010 Rwanda’s Total Fertility Rate dropped from 6.1 to 4.6.
During this period, Contraceptive Prevalence Rate increased from 10 per cent to 45 per cent.

{{Free operations to fix Hundreds of children and adults with cleft lip and palate have reportedly started at Rwamagana Hospital.}}

The week-long surgeries by a team of highly specialised medics from ‘Help a Child Face Tomorrow’ Kenya, is led by Dr. Meshach Ong’uti.

According to Ong’uti, the CEO/Co- Founder of the charity organisation, free surgeries are mainly given to children with cleft lip and cleft palate who are at least three months old and in good health.

“We have so far operated on 56 patients, majority are children…the surgery is important to children with the impairment. We operate and train the local staff at the same time.”

{{The number of older persons – defined as aged 60 and over – are growing in virtually every country.}}

There were an estimated 605 million older persons in 2002 and the number of older persons worldwide is expected to reach more than 1.2 billion by 2025.

The vast numbers of the aging population is creating a dramatic change in how healthcare professionals view, manage and deliver services.

Prevention and lifestyle modification is proving to be the most effective mechanism to managing one of the leading health condition in aging females – menopause.

Women comprise the majority of the older population in virtually every country, largely because women live longer than men. However, women also tend to manage and take better care of their health.

{{1 in 3 at risk of fractures}}

Menopause creates special nutritional needs and lifestyle modification techniques to ensure hormonal balance, strong bones, effective weight management and chronic disease prevention.

Women are at greater risk of osteoporosis due to accelerated bone loss after menopause.

Menopause induced osteoporosis and associated fractures are a major cause of illness, disability and death. Women suffer 80 percent of all hip fractures and their lifetime risk of experiencing an osteoporotic fracture is between 30 to 40 percent.

Lifestyle factors – especially diet and exercise have been found to be effective preventative and corrective techniques in menopause related osteoporosis. Increasing bone mass can be achieved by providing the proper nutrients and stressing the bones in a healthy way.

The strength of bones is directly related to the amount of stress you place on them. The amount of physical activity one places on their body diminishes as we get older.

This reduces the load on the bones and will cause the bones thin and weaken.

The foods and nutrients that we eat play the most significant role in the development and maintenance of strong bones. A leading cause of bone thinning is inflammation in the body.

Inflammation is greatly influenced by the nutrients that we consume on a daily basis.

{{Calcium in more than milk}}

Providing one’s body with enough calcium is only part of the solution. Absorption of calcium is based on several factors such as amount of vitamin D, inflammation and overall absorbability of the calcium.

Calcium-rich foods are readily absorbable but nutritional supplements may not be.

The Harvard Medical School recommends that post menopausal women get at least 1,500 mg of calcium each day. Foods that are high in calcium include dark green, leafy vegetables, fish, beans, nuts and some dairy products.

{{Calcium needs vitamin D}}

Vitamin D is required for the body to absorb and make use of calcium according to The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Vitamin D acts more like a hormone and is involved in dozens of bodily functions including healthy bones.

One’s body produces Vitamin D with sufficient exposure to sunlight. It’s common to get less physical activity and go outside less as we age. These two factors will diminish one’s vitamin D production and calcium absorption. Vitamin D is also available in one’s diet. Foods that are rich in vitamin D include fish, eggs and dairy products.

Primary prevention and treatment recommendations for menopause-induced osteoporosis is improving one’s diet and engaging in a healthy exercise regimen.

Taking proactive steps early in life will greatly reduce the risk a broken hip or associated osteoporotic fracture later in life.

{Dr. Cory Couillard is an international healthcare speaker and columnist for numerous newspapers, magazines, websites and publications throughout the world.

He works in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s goals of disease prevention and global healthcare education. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement.}

{{When I began working on malaria in the late 1970s, the disease was rampant.

Working for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I was stationed at a hospital in the Western Kenya district of Siaya.}}

In the pediatric ward there were often two children to a bed, with more than half succumbing to malaria-related anemia.

Kenya didn’t have a strategy to protect children from malaria – at that time no African country did. In fact, bed nets, a cornerstone of today’s prevention efforts, were not being used.

They hadn’t yet been proven to be an effective tool for fighting malaria. Instead, the focus was on providing treatment for the sick and trying to delay death that was often unavoidable.

Malaria was, without a doubt, the biggest problem Africa faced; but it was largely invisible. It was not considered a national or global priority and international funding was virtually nonexistent.

We didn’t have the knowledge or tools to get it under control and make a lasting impact.

This all began to change, just over a decade ago. Data demonstrating the incredible power of bed nets began to mount and we realized the benefits of combining tools and strategies under national programs to control malaria.

Until this point there wasn’t a roadmap to guide countries, showing how to do it and what to expect.

Beginning in 2005, we had the opportunity to do just that, show how you could design and implement a national malaria control program and make an impact.

In partnership with the Zambian government, the Scale-up for Impact (SUFI) approach was implemented to rapidly deploy, at high coverage levels, malaria prevention tools to achieve maximum health impact.

Zambia became the first country in Africa to successfully achieve high coverage with tools like bed nets, and the results were nothing short of dramatic.

From 2006 to 2008, malaria cases, hospitalizations, and prevalence in children were reduced by more than 50 percent in Zambia – a major drop in a short period of time, never before seen in Africa.

The SUFI approach is now the global standard for malaria control, and has been implemented in more than 40 African countries.

Thanks to these efforts and the work of national programs across Africa, partners like the World Bank and the U.S. president’s Malaria Initiative – and a surge in international funding through organizations like the Global Fund – the lives of more than one million African children have been saved in the last ten years.

Today, many of the countries that were early adopters of SUFI are now setting their sights on eliminating malaria, a once unfathomable goal. Kenya is one of these countries.

The pressures and demands malaria put on the country’s health services have been relieved.
We know malaria can be controlled. We’ve seen the results.

Lives saved. Health improved. But controlling malaria isn’t an acceptable goal, and especially not when we see a very real path toward elimination for the first time.

It’s time to end one of the leading threats to Africa’s children by eliminating malaria. The evidence we’re seeing across Africa shows this is possible.

What’s needed now is a new road map to guide countries on the path toward elimination. And our group at PATH, along with national program partners, is working on the development of the practical experience at the program level to build such a road map.

We’re working with partners across Africa, like Zambia, to show what works and what’s needed and to plot the path ahead.

By maintaining the use of proven prevention tools while aggressively diagnosing and treating malaria, we can break the chain of transmission and end infections in Africa.

We’ll create malaria-free zones one at a time, and grow them – to districts, states, and countries. The fight will be long, but it’s one that we can win.

But to say that malaria can be eliminated in Africa does not mean that it will be eliminated. Success requires political and financial support.

It’s an effort that will require all of us – local and national governments, the global health and donor community, scientists and policymakers.

We know there are challenges ahead, with countries and partners facing competing priorities and financial pressures, but we also know this is a fight that’s worth it. Together, we can make malaria history.

{Adapted from CNN}

{{Twenty five low- and middle-income countries, including Rwanda, have managed to halve their rate of new HIV infections since 2001, UNAIDS said in its annual report on the state of the global pandemic.}}

The UN body’s World AIDS Day Report 2012 shows that in the last ten years, the landscape of national HIV epidemics has changed dramatically, for the better in most countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Rwanda, Gabon, and Togo, are some of the countries which achieved significant declines of more than 50%, according to the report.

Globally, new HIV infections fell to 2.5 million last year from 2.6 million in 2010 and represented a 20-percent drop from 2001, according to UNAIDS.

Sub-Saharan Africa has cut the number of people dying of AIDS-related causes by 32% between 2005 and 2011.

Rwanda cut AIDS related death by 68%, Burundi by 51% while Kenya registered 71,000 fewer death and 48,000 in Tanzania, while Botswana one of the region’s countries with smaller populations but high HIV prevalence cut AIDS-related deaths reduced by 71%.

The report lists Rwanda among five countries in the region that have achieved more than 80% coverage of HIV treatment. The others are Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.

{{Most Rwandan nationals that complete their professional medical studies abroad are said to be reluctant on returning to their home country and instead takeup jobs abroad.}}

This is a major cause for lack of specialists in Rwanda’s health sector where hospitals are said to lack specialists.

Joan Matabaro a specialist in Charge of HRD, Capacity Building in General Directorate Ministry of Foreign Affairs urges Rwandan health doctors abroad to return home to help their country mate.

Dr. Musa Tugirimana is a Rwandan general surgeon from Belgium who has been placed by international organization for migration (IOM) at Kibagabaga Hospital.

In only 15 days he has operated 20 patients, most of them suffering from goiter illness. He also trained nurses.

“The Rwandan doctors in foreign countries might come back to Rwanda to support their country because Rwanda has many patients who need treatment.” said Dr. Tugirimana.

Mukarurangwa Doris is a chief in surgeon hall said that Dr. Musa helped in reducing a number of patient to be operated.

In Rwanda, hundreds of people daily from curable diseases due to lack of appropriately trained and specialized health professionals.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Migration for development in Africa (MIDA) heatlh project is a joint initiative of IOM, the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MINAFFET) in Rwanda whose overall objective is to strengthen the national health strategy and the health sector in Rwanda in general by providing return air ticket and a monthly subsistence allowance for the volunteer health specialis.

{{The Ministry of Health will support 30 districts by strengthening their capacity with highly qualified staff skilled in education, monitoring, evaluation, and project management. }}

This seeks to strengthen implementation of Health services rendered to the population.

Ministry of health released a statement November, 20th, noting that with the third decentralization phase will empower sectors to take control of decisions and management.

The statement said it is time for the Ministry to deploy about 5-10 experts currently based at the central level to each of the districts.

Last week, a team of leaders across the health sector at the central level met with all district Vice Mayors during their retreat in Gashora to discuss how to proceed.

As the country approaches the time for creating EDPRS II, where deep mindset changes are requested from each and every Rwandan, this policy action will increase ownership by local leaders as well as their financial and technical capacity in the health sector for the benefit of the population.

The outcomes expected from this transition are to improve customer care, nutrition, and the rates of child and maternal survival.

{{A new US report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that large gaps between black and white women in terms of mortality and stage of diagnosis continue to persist.}}

Black women still have a disproportionately higher breast cancer death rate – 41% higher than white women.

This finding is based on 2005 to 2009 data, showing that even though African-American women have a lower incidence of breast cancer, they are more likely to die of this disease than women in any other racial or ethnic group.

Diagnosis of breast cancer at more aggressive stages is also more common among black women than white women. There were nine more deaths among black women for every 100 breast cancers diagnosed compared to white women.

The report says that mammography may be less frequently used among black women than white women, based on self-reported data.

It’s also more common for a longer amount of time to pass between mammograms for black women than white women.

Once a woman receives abnormal mammography results, it takes longer for her to get a diagnosis if she’s black than if she’s white, studies have shown.

The report also points out that black women more commonly have subtypes of tumors that are harder to treat, especially a kind called triple negative breast cancer.

“Further research is needed to determine the etiology of biological characteristics of breast cancer in black women to design effective prevention and treatment strategies,” the report said.

This report also points out that African-American women still aren’t receiving the same quality of breast cancer treatment as white women typically do.

White women are also more likely to begin treatment within 30 days of diagnosis.

If women of both races received the same treatment, death rates could fall by almost 20%, Dr. Marcus Plescia, Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control at CDC, told reporters Wednesday.

The Affordable Care Act is designed to allow access to health care that wasn’t possible for some women before, including mammograms, said Ileana Arias, principal deputy director for the CDC.

This report does have some limitations that it acknowledges: The study did not verify cause of death.

Race and ethnicity could have been misclassified, and the population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau may have errors.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and leads to about 40,000 deaths annually among all women.

In general, more research is needed to probe the reasons for such racial disparities and develop interventions that benefit all groups.

More aggressive breast cancer types also require more research in terms of screening and treating them.

From CNN