The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) - Rwanda yesterday inaugurated a new HIV clinic and laboratory at Kabuye Health Centre in Gasabo District. The facility, worth Rwf70 million, would help healthcare providers have separate rooms for different services. This will lead to improved services. Kabuye Health Centre has a total of about 700 clients in HIV care. According to Dr Horatious Munyampundu, the Country Programme Manager of AHF Rwanda, the old HIV clinic operated in only a single room, where dispensing, counseling, consultation and filling took place. “This room is too congested and the health providers don’t have enough space to work. “In most cases patients who only need drugs will have to wait for consultation to end before they are served which compromises quality of care provided because of the time wasted,” he said. The organisation has been supplementing government efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS specifically in areas of prevention and testing services as well as treatment and care. Today, 16 health facilities are supported by AHF-Rwanda in eight districts which include Nyabihu, Gasabo, Nyarugenge, Kicukiro, Musanze, Rubavu, Nyanza and Huye. Dr Penninah Iutung Amor, Africa Bureau Chief of AHF said, “This is part of our global commitment to supporting governments in the provision of high quality HIV prevention and treatment services. “We shall continue to extend our support to the people of Rwanda in this noble and critical undertaking.” The organisation also provides training to health care providers to better manage HIV and follow up on those of ARVs through mentorship. The foundation called for proper use of HIV drugs, saying additional years are achieved by those living with HIV if proper combination of antiretroviral drugs is administered and proper care maintained. The organisation reaffirmed commitment to control mother-to-child HIV transmission as part of the efforts to achieve an HIV free generation. Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that, on average, one person is infected with HIV every 30 minutes, putting HIV/Aids prevalence at 3 per cent in the country. HIV transmission from mother to child has reduced from 9 per cent in 2003 to 1 per cent in 2013 at health facility level. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
