Bring your Children with Clubfoot disease for treatment- Rwandan Doctors urge parents

 

Parents urged to bring their children with Foot disabilities to the Hospitals for treatment

Pediatric orthopedic surgeons are urging parents to bring children with various disabilities including “club foot” to the hospital because it is a disability that can be treated when taken care of at every early stage.

Between 500 and 600 children in Rwanda are born every year with club foot disability.

Treatment includes use of the Ponseti method, short-leg surgery, wearing special shoes, so that the baby’s foot can be readjusted and he or she is able to walk properly.

This was confirmed by Dr Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, a pediatrician working at Gahini and Rilima Hospitals in a recent interview with Pacis TV.

“It is a disability that affects the feet of children while they are still in the womb. You can find out from the 26th week of pregnancy, using radiography.”

He adds that when a baby is treated at an early stage, her/his legs are restored to normal.

“When a baby is born it is easy for the mother to know. You see the curves are flat, the foot slopes upwards, and most of the medical staff know it so much that they tell the mother. We urge parents to go to the doctor as soon as possible because it is a curable disease.”

Dr Nsengiyumva says babies recover quickly as soon as they are brought to hospitals.

“Once you know that a child has a foot disability, bring him or her, the sooner you bring him or her, the better and quicker he or she will be,” he said.

He goes on to say that over two years the baby’s bones began to move, and he began to twist. “When a child starts walking it’s worse than it used to be. It is better to be treated before the time comes.”

However, the doctor assures that even after two years or later the disease can be treated because there are other methods they use, but that they are not the same as that used when the baby was treated as soon as he was born.

Parents who have taken their children with the disability to the hospital affirm that the disease is curable and therefore encourage those with children with defects to take them to the doctor.

Niragire Olive, from Munyiginya sector, who has a child born with the disability, says he was treated at Gahini Hospital and her child is now recovering.

She learned of his son’s illness when he failed to stand, and saw that he did not stand still like other children.

She asked other parents what to do and ended up at Gahini Hospital, so she took him there to prevent her child from becoming embarrassed as she grew up.

She urges parents to take their children with disabilities to go for treatment since medications are available.

She also called for the support of parents who treat their children with disabilities because it requires a lot of means to find food for those who remain at the hospital while waiting for the children to get treated as they came from far away.

The Rwanda Clubfoot Program, in partnership with Hope Walk, says they will continue to encourage parents to take their children for treatment at 13 hospitals they work with across the country.

These are Muhima, Masaka and Inkuru Nziza hospitals located in Kigali City.

In the Eastern Province there are Rilima, Nyamata and Gahini.

In the North there is Ruhengeri Hospital.

In the West there are Gisenyi, Kibuye and Gihundwe while in the South there are Kabgayi, HVP Gatagara and CHUB.