Rwanda is the only country in Africa using the latest birth control method for men known as  Non-scalpel Vasectomy, Doctor Leonard Kagabo in charge of family planning/Vasectomy in the Ministry of Health has said.

Kagabo said that it is a simple operation on a man to prevent him from impregnating a woman. It involve minor surgical operation, the vas deferens (the tubes that carry sperm) are cut and sealed using thermal cautery.

"This is the latest kind of Vasectomy and only Rwanda has it now in the whole of Africa, even some developed countries have not started using it fully; only the USA, Canada and a few European countries, have begun using this latest type,” Kagabo said in an interview at his Kicukiro office yesterday.

He added that Rwanda has advanced from using scalpel vasectomy which uses risky surgical blades and notes that more have started applying for this new modern vasectomy.

In four pilot Districts where the ministry carried intensive sensitization since 2008, men have increased in large numbers for the vasectomy.

"We begun with Muhanga, Rulindo, Nyabihu and Gicumbi Districts as pilot districts which has registered an increasing number to 120, 250, 300 and 400 men respectively turning for vasectomy,” Kagabo said.

"We actually have only three doctors and four nurses who can carry out this operation and there is an increasing number applying for this modern kind of vasectomy”.

Family planning has been seen as a way of controlling a sky-rocketing population which has deeply affected human health standards.

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