The Minister for Health, Dr Daniel Ngamije, has commended Rwandan epidemiologists for their great role in the relentless fight against Covid-19 for nearly two years since the outbreak of the global pandemic.

Ngamije said this during the official opening of a two-day science conference that started on Wednesday, September 29, to discuss the role of epidemiology in the fight against Covid-19, malaria, health security, HIV, and Tuberculosis.

The conference was held under the theme; "Building Resilient Sustainable and Innovative Public Health Systems Through Field Epidemiology Training”.

"My gratitude goes to the epidemiologists who have done a commendable job during this pandemic, we couldn’t convince decision makers without your evidence,” Ngamije said, referring to the different measures taken by government to fight Covid.

He added that "this conference comes at the time that the country and entire globe is working tirelessly to control the pandemic where the role and contribution of the scientific community, especially field epidemiologists, is paramount”.

Ngamije, however, stressed that the impact of epidemiologists is not just felt during this period of coronavirus, adding that they have over the years worked effortlessly to keep at bay different health threats.

"We have witnessed the tremendous contribution of field epidemiologists before when we faced epidemiological events in the community around the country, one example being how they responded to the Ebola outbreak,” he said.

One of the field epidemiologists, Noella Benemariya, told The New Times that one of the key undertakings of the team during Covid-19 was the role of collecting data, analyzing it before giving their opinion.

"This greatly helped the decision makers to apply some of the decisions like lockdowns,” she said.

Dr Simon Nyovuura Antara, Director of African Field Epidemiology Network emphasised how field epidemiologists are the disease detectives and he thanked Rwanda for strengthening field epidemiology training programs.

"I want to remind the epidemiologists that, you are the diseases investigators especially the pandemics, Rwanda has invested in the quality Field Epidemiology Programmes (FETP) and is contributing to the national and international level where they are now training colleagues in the other countries,” he said.

The conference was organized through partnership between the health ministry, Rwanda Biomedical Centre, University of Rwanda, USA Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and African Field Epidemiology Network among others.