For months, Ndagijimana Gatiba, a resident of Bigogwe Sector, Nyabihu Distict, suffered from a severe cold. Convinced that he had been bewitched, he sought the services of traditional healers. However, even after enduring a series of rituals at the hands of the healers, his condition only got worse. “Eventually, I met a community health worker who advised me to go to hospital, where I was diagnosed with tuberculosis. I started taking tablets from April 4, 2014 until July, 8, 2014, when the health centre told me that I had been cured,” Gatiba said. He was testifying on World Tuberculosis Day, which was marked at the national level in Nyabihu. Dr Jean Baptiste Mazarati, the head of biomedical services at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, called upon residents of Nyabihu to stop linking tuberculosis to witchcraft, and instead go to medical facilities, saying that all of them had capacity to treat the disease. “Anyone with cough for two weeks and beyond should visit the nearest health facility since testing and treatment are offered free of charge,” he said. “TB prevalence is low in Rwanda but we should make more efforts to ensure zero case in the near future; and this can be achieved through consulting health workers in time in case one has detected any of the symptoms,” he said. The World Health Organisation Deputy Country Representative, Dr Julie Mugabekazi, said Rwandans have to step-up efforts to fight tuberculosis despite the low prevalence compared to neighbouring countries. “We need to remain vigilant,” she said. In Rwanda, TB mortality rate currently stands at 10 people out of every 100,000 patients, according to the 2013 World Health Organisation report. About 6,000 TB cases were registered countrywide in 2013, 2,000 of them in the city of Kigali alone. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
