Kigali, Jan 31 (IANS) Rwanda on Friday launched a comprehensive blueprint to advance progress toward universal health coverage by 2030.
The Health Sector Strategic Plan V (HSSP V) for 2024-2029, launched in Kigali, the capital, aims to create a healthier, more productive population that drives Rwanda’s development goals, authorities said.
The launch coincided with the unveiling of Mission 2027, an initiative to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer.
“With HSSP V, we are not just continuing our progress. We are accelerating it,” said Yvan Butera, Rwandan minister of state in the Ministry of Health. “We will expand our health workforce, strengthen primary healthcare, and ensure quality services reach every Rwandan.”
Rwanda will invest in research, digital health, and biotechnology to modernize the health system, strengthen health security and emergency preparedness, and improve health financing to ensure affordability, he said, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Screenings for non-communicable diseases are taking shape … preventing complications very early,” Butera said. “More recently, we have expanded services that Rwandans can access with Community Health Insurance, notably cancer care, cardiovascular diseases, and kidney transplants.”
According to the Ministry of Health, Rwanda’s community-based health insurance now covers 83.5 per cent of the population.
Last month, the country announced the end of the Marburg virus disease outbreak, initially declared on September 27.
The announcement, by Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana in Kigali, followed 42 consecutive days with no new cases after the discharge of the last confirmed patient, meeting WHO guidelines.
Rwanda recorded its last confirmed case on October 30 and its last Marburg-related death on October 14.
–IANS
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