Rwanda has transitioned from relying on research from other countries to conducting its studies, to discover its challenges and cater to the health needs of the country. According to Dr Eric Remera, the manager of the division in charge of research, innovation, and data sciences at Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), without efforts by local researchers, a country moves blindly without a plan, stressing that medical research is indispensable for the advancement of healthcare and the development of new treatments for diseases. ALSO READ: Experts explore strategies for building ecosystem responsive to Rwanda’s unique health needs “We ensured some analysis using available data, and discovered some major issues in the country, after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. There was an emergency for deficiency diseases, malaria, diarrhea, TB, and HIV, but all these have declined due to some campaigns and programs instigated, like the HIV campaigns aimed to combat the stigma associated with HIV and enhance public knowledge and prevention measures,” he said. He stressed that it is through research that interventions to curb these diseases are discoursed. There is a decreasing prevalence of HIV, and a reduction of malaria, as malaria cases lessened by 88% in 2023. Tuberculosis (TB) in the country decreased from 96 patients per 100,000 populations in 2000 to 56 patients per 100,000 populations in 2021, according to the 2022 global TB report. ALSO READ: Rwanda has made significant progress in fight against tuberculosis – RBC He also added that child mortality has declined. The infant mortality (children under the age of one year) rates dropped from 86 live deaths per 1,000 births in 2005 to 32 per 1,000 from January 2014 to December 2015, according to the Ministry of Health reports. Additionally, mortality rates for children under the age of five also reduced from 152 to 50 deaths per 1,000 live births during the same period. The decline in numbers is attributed to the fact that 91 percent of deliveries currently take place in hospitals, as of 2023. Life expectancy increased from 64.5 in 2012 to 69.6 in 2022, according to the fifth Population and Housing Census ALSO READ: What does Rwanda's rising life expectancy mean? “Regardless of the strides, ending child mortality requires extra efforts. The efforts that were done before were through campaigns, building a health system, and hospitals, however, now we need new evidence, new metrics, and precision. For instance, to know who is the child dying, why, and how? This is why research is coming in to help on this,” Remera said. He also stressed that malaria is concentrated in endemic areas, adding that interventions in place can’t cover the whole country to eliminate malaria. This, he said, requires research to find out the gaps and how to bridge them. According to Remera, non-communicable diseases are surpassing efficiency diseases, which calls for research, alongside a health system and evidence to demonstrate how to allocate medicines to tackle the issue. Although the country has shifted to ‘4x4 Reform’, to quadruple the number of its healthcare professionals within four years to enhance the quality and accessibility of health services, Remera noted that the achievement will require data guided by evidence. The Ministry of Health through RBC, government, researchers, and other partners recently launched a research agenda – a guiding document for five years to demonstrate the major health gaps mentioned above and contribute to addressing them. “We discussed our strategic direction to achieve our strategy goals, which includes creating an infrastructure and ecosystem structure, capacity building for people in research, and resource mobilisation.” Remera highlighted that before, research was perceived as an expense, stressing that it should rather be invested in as a business that can offer jobs to researchers.
