There are tens of millions of children with undiagnosed Tuberculosis (TB), a new study quantifying the global burden of TB among children suggests. Medics and researchers at the University of Sheffield, Imperial College London, and TB Alliance found evidence to believe that there is a large gap between the number of recorded TB cases and the true incidence. 

Investigators focused on 22 countries with the highest burden of TB in the world. In these countries, more than 650,000 children developed the disease in 2010, while 7.6 million became infected with the TB bacterium. Overall, more than 53 million children were estimated to harbour a latent TB infection. 

But all these worries about the bacterial infection have come at a time when experts urge that early hepatitis screening could save lives. A 2012 health survey of 12,000 pregnant women in selected health facilities country wide showed that 3.7 percent of them had Hepatitis B while 2.6 percent had Hepatitis C, according to the Rwanda Organisation for Fighting Against Hepatitis (ROFAH). The World Health Organisationalso agrees that 1.4million people die of Hepatitis annually while other studies conducted in Kigali between 2013 and 2014 show that 5 percent of HIV-positive people were found to have Hepatitis B.

But not all was gloom last week as residents of the rural Kazo Sector in Ngoma District last week unveiled a health post worth Rwf32m. The residents funded the construction of the health facility that is bound to serve over 10,000 people. The health facility was built using the resident’s monthly cash contribution and labour totalling Rwf26m while the district contributed Rwf6million. The completion of the facility is evidence  that unity breeds development.