Last week, the public was urged to develop a positive attitude toward blood donation to save lives and sustain the blood bank.

Alexia Mukamazimpaka, the head of blood donors’ mobilisation service at National Centre for Blood Transfusion (NCBT), made the call ahead of the blood donation day on Friday.

Mt Kenya University (MUK) organised the event in collaboration with the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

In related developments, over 130 patients underwent cardiac and renal surgery during a two-day medical camp that was led by two visiting Indian surgeons in Kigali.

The two, cardiology consultants, Dr Brajesh Kunwar, and urologist and renal surgeon Dr S.K. Bhagat, led a local team last week, treating patients at La Croix du Sud Hospital, commonly known as ‘Kwa Nyirinkwaya’, from November 19-20.

The visiting experts are staff of  Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai, India.

After spending two days treating patients, they conducted a one-day training workshop, organised by the Rwanda Medical Council, with over 20 local doctors on modern management of Cardiac Arrhythmia, a heart disease caused by heart rhythm problems, and Prostate complications.

Dr Jean Chrysostome Nyirinkwaya, the chairperson of Rwanda Healthcare Federation, said the training would help doctors treat patients suffering from the same complications.

He urged the public to go for Prostate Specific Antigen tests regularly in order to screen for the disease.

Meanwhile, Rwanda is set to adopt health system guidelines that will, among other outcomes, integrate a good quality and cost effective surgical care of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

This follows a new plan that advocates for improved treatment interventions of non-communicable diseases in the country, according to an announcement from a two-day meeting that drew surgeons, anesthesiologists, general medical practitioners from district hospitals, nurses, and policy makers and development partners.

Organised by the Rwanda Surgical Society, participants sought to make experienced-based recommendations.

Minister for Health, Dr Agnes Binagwaho said there was a remarkable improvement in the country’s surgical system but there is room for improvement.

Dr Emile Rwamisirabo, the president of the Rwanda Surgical Society, noted that surgeons still had the task of ensuring that every district is catered for in terms of specialist care.

Elsewhere, US scientists have bred a genetically modified (GM) mosquito that can resist malaria infection.

If the lab technique works in the field, it could offer a new way of stopping the biting insects from spreading malaria to humans, they say.

The scientists put a new "resistance” gene into the mosquito’s own DNA, using a gene editing method called Crispr.

When the GM mosquitoes mated, their offspring inherited the same resistance, according to PNAS journal.

In theory, if these mosquitoes bite people, they should not be able to pass on the parasite that causes malaria.

About 3.2bn people - almost half of the world’s population - are at risk of malaria.

Bed nets, insecticides and repellents can help stop the insects biting and drugs can be given to anyone who catches the infection, but the disease still kills around 580,000 people a year.