HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt and U.S. Government Officials Complete Their Four-Country African Visit in Rwanda
HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt led the delegation, which had also visited South Africa, Mozambique, and Tanzania, to observe and draw attention to many of the health-related programs funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Shortly after his arrival in Kigali, Rwanda, on Sunday, August 26, 2007, Secretary Leavitt and the group went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center, where they visited the mass graves of Rwandans who lost their lives in the 1994 massacre. He participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the gravesite before receiving a tour of the center.
On Monday, August 27, 2007, the delegation, which included the U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, RADM Tim Ziemer (USN, ret.), toured the Gasabo District Residential Community and Primary Care Clinic, where the PMI supports the home-based management of fever by training community health workers to diagnose and treat symptoms of fever in children six months to five years old. Health centers report that malaria is the cause of death in 34 percent of cases, and is the cause of over a third of children’s visits to health centers, and the PMI-funded program has dramatically reduced the number of hospitalizations for malaria in the surrounding area.
"I saw that the programs are having an impact on the ground because every child with fever can get medicine," Secretary Leavitt commented. He added, "They demonstrated to me that this was a very successful program."
The Rwandan National Malaria-Control Program is scaling up home-based management of fever to nine endemic districts with financial support from PMI, and in nine additional districts with financial support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which receives substantial contributions from the U.S. government.
Later that morning the delegation, accompanied by the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, the Honorable Michael R. Arietti, met with Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza. Secretary Leavitt congratulated the Prime Minister on his government's leadership and commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, and expressed his pleasure at being able visit Rwanda and hear the views of Rwanda's leaders on how to build upon the partnership between their two countries in the area of disease prevention and health promotion.
Other projects the delegation observed in Rwanda included a mobile voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) program at the ES Kicukiro Secondary School that is part of the "Healthy Schools" Initiative funded by the President's Emergency Plan through the HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Project staff train students in HIV prevention, and give them the opportunity to be tested for HIV on site. After observing an assembly in which students watched and discussed a dramatic performance that delivered "ABC" (abstinence, be faithful, and the correct and consistent use of condoms) messages and urged students to get tested, Secretary Leavitt and the Rwandan Minister of State for HIV?AIDS and Other Epidemics, the Honorable Innocent Nyaruhirira, M.D., engaged with teens who were enrolled in a pre-test counselling session. Secretary Leavitt and the Minister of State then each received an HIV/AIDS test through the finger-prick, rapid-test method, an event widely covered in the Rwandan media.
Secretary Leavitt and the delegation also on Monday visited the Kigali Health Institute (KHI) to speak to students and faculty and answer their questions. Secretary Leavitt expressed America’s commitment to working with Rwanda to meet challenges such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and strengthening health-care institutions. The day’s events concluded with a dinner hosted by the Rwandan Ministry of Health.
Prior to their departure on Tuesday, August 28, 2007, the U.S. delegation saw an example of integrated health care in a rural setting at the Rubengara Clinic in the Kirongi District of Rwanda. The Secretary met with members of community associations of people who are living with HIV/AIDS, and discussed their experience with antiretroviral therapy at Rubengara and nearby clinics, which receive financial support from the President's Emergency Plan. The delegation also witnessed a real-time demonstration of TracNet technology, which allows health workers to transmit data from the field via cell phone communication to the nationwide health information system central office. In a gesture of support for income generation projects for rural, HIV-positive Rwandans, Secretary Leavitt and the delegation donated 50 goats to the local associations of people who are living with HIV/AIDS.
