Rwanda Celebrates World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day.


Kigali, January 31, 2022: Rwanda joined the rest of the World to celebrate the World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) with the theme “100% Committed to End NTDs: Elimination of Schistosomiasis and Podoconiosis in Sight”. The event was held on January 30, 2022 at Kigali Convention Centre and brought together academics, students and staff from Rwanda Ethiopia, Sudan, and UK aimed to strengthen the community engagement and conduct a massive community awareness campaign on NTDs.


The Minister of health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, who was the Guest of Honor at the ceremonies called upon the population for more involvement to eradicate NTDs in Rwanda.


“We call upon districts and local leaders and the citizens to make use of this new approach to get engaged in the fight against NTDs. It is our hope that with the support of our partners, we will achieve sustainable gains in the NTDs fight, through our people-centered and One Health approaches” said Minister Ngamije.
The Minister of Health recognizes the contribution of all partners who support the national NTD elimination plan, including the Merck Group with its new contribution to supply additional 8 million tablets each year to treat adults in all endemic areas to achieve our targets for elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem.


Schistosomiasis is endemic in Rwanda with more than 3million people in need of mass drug administration. The disease is mainly focalized in populations of areas with intense rice cultivations. It is the second most fatal diseases after malaria. Its consequences on health are immense ranging from malnutrition/ stunting, liver fibrosis, esophageal varices, cancer to death.


NTDs are a diverse set of 20 diseases and disease groups that affect more than 1.7 billion worldwide. Over 40% of this global burden is concentrated in Africa.


Responding to this situation, Dr. Mbituyumuremyi Aimable the Division Manager of National Malaria Control Program, other Parasitic Diseases and Neglected Tropical Diseases Division in RBC said that a lot has been done to provide treatment to over six thousand patients affected by Podoconiosis diseases.


“So far we have started giving treatment to both children and adults affected by Podoconiosis and others with abdominal worms as NTD, but the specific case of podoconiosis research shows that it’s common in Western and Northern part of the country with nearly 40% of the cases,” Said Mbituyumuremyi.


The elimination of NTDs is a is multisectoral task involving a variety of stakeholders including researchers.
 The University of Rwanda in collaboration with the Global Health Research unit on NTDs at Brighton and Sussex medical school started a five years’ research project from 2022 to 2026. The 5S foundation aims to end the neglect of Mycetoma, Podoconiosis and Scabies by applying social science to these diseases to understand patient experience at the micro, meso and macro levels.


The NTDs affect one in five people worldwide threatening their physical, economic, and social futures. Ranked among the four most devastating groups of communicable diseases, NTDs cause severe pain, long-term disability and deaths. Among children, infection leads to malnutrition, cognitive impairment, stunted growth and the inability to attend school.

Cialis İzmir ceza avukatı İzmir araç kaplama