Rwanda has significantly reduced Tuberculosis (TB) incidence compared to other African countries.According to Doctor Michel Gasana, the Director of Tuberculosis Programme in the Ministry of Health, Rwanda’s remarkable progress in the fight against Tuberculosis is attributed to various strategies in place.Some of the strategies employed by Rwanda include medics training in handling and treating TB patients, equipping health facilities with TB medicines, health insurance (mutuelle de santé) and help from Community Health Workers.He was speaking yesterday on the sidelines of the 19th conference of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease which ends tomorrow.Dr Gasana also stated that there are currently three centres in the country for patients with Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB).The centres include Kibungo, Kibagabaga and Kabutare which have been proven very helpful because once MDR TB patients are isolated and treated in their own facilities then it reduces the chances of them infecting others. “The numbers of TB cases we receive have now gone down. We used to receive an estimate of 8,000 but it has gone down to around 6,000. We are also doing a new data analysis now to ascertain the exact figures although so far we are certain that there has been a tremendous improvement,” he said.Without giving figures, Gasana said Kigali has the highest TB cases in Rwanda with a third of all TB cases registered.
