COVID 19 Vaccination: Rwanda’s Former Minister of Health warns countries not to leave behind people in humanitarian situation
By Ange de la Victoire DUSABEMUNGU
Rwanda’s Former Minister of Health who is now the Vice Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE-Rwanda) has warned that if the global vaccination campaign leaves people in the humanitarian situation, it will worsen the situation as the number of COVID 19 will continue to raise and that will mostly affect children, women, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
She made the remarks on Thursday, 26th 2021 during #AskProfAgnes webinar that was also attended by Dr. Rex Wong, Director of the Bill and Joyce Cummings Institute of Global Health, Dr. Sheila Davis, Chief Executive Officer of Partners in Health, Dr. Jonathan Calbayan, Public Health Coordinator at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representation Office Kigali Rwanda, Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, Chair, Board of Trustees for the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Ms. Rita Amukhobu Acting Head of Humanitarian Affairs Division, Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development at the African Union Commission.
The Thursday Webinar is CONTINUUM OF THE #ASKPROFAGNES EQUITY WEBINAR SERIES organized by the University of Global Health Equity.
It is organized at the time when the United Nations commemorates World Humanitarian Day in August, under this year’s theme “Real Life Heroes”.
Prof. Agnes Binagwaho, a globally recognised Health Expert said “this month we want to raise awareness on the UN World Humanitarian Day and the theme for this year is “Real life Heroes.”
She said this is the good time to discuss the challenges faced by the humanitarian during COVID 19 and finding together solutions not only for this time of COVID 19 but also for future humanitarian situations.
“Since March, 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the life of displaced people, already too often excluded from quality Healthcare services, has worsened.” She said
“It is the case of millions of refugees that are currently residing in numerous camps worldwide where medical resources are already too little.” added Prof. Binagwaho.
She gave an example where at the beginning of the pandemic, the Greek Government was accused of negligence and risking migrants’ life by the human right Watch due to poor handling of the refugee camps.
“They have put more than 37,000 people in facilities that could only hold 6,000 people, imposing high risk of rapid contagion.” She explains referring to the Human Right Watch Report.
She continued to mention that “On top of this, overcrowding in the camp, the study has shown that this population of displaced people has 40% of adults with two or more non-communicable diseases.”
“So, poor hygiene and lack of medication to manage connected diseases increase the risk of COVID 19.
“The situation worsened dramatically by the fact that the ability to follow the World Health Organization public health recommendation, such as social distancing and hand-hygiene and self-isolation was and still is almost impossible to implement in this European refugee camp and in any refugee camp around the World.” Prof. Binagwaho noted.
She also explained that the number of displaced people due to various reasons including war, famine, climate change will continue to increase where she gave examples such as in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia where refugee camps are still emerging from the above issues.
“This is why we need to increase the resources available to displaced people. For COVID 19, it is imperative that lifesaving intervention and vaccination should be available to all people, especially internally displaced and refugees.
“However, this is not the case during this pandemic. For example, despite the Government of Lebanon adopting an inclusive approach towards vaccination, the refugees in that country still face issues accessing the vaccination centre, because they have problems overcoming barriers to mobility.” She explained.
Prof. Binagwaho reminded that in March 2021, Rwanda was one of the first countries to include refugees in the National Vaccination program as a priority group given the risk of the virus spreading within the refugee camp due to overcrowding.
“As of June, 2021, 91 out of 162 countries that UNHCR has been monitoring offer COVID 19 Vaccine to refugees. If we do not act through the coordinated effort and global assistance to support context specific solutions in countries affected by the humanitarian crisis, we have the risk that COVID 19 variant will ravage vulnerable populations in these camps but will spread out of the camp and threaten global health security.” Prof. Binagwaho warned.
According to Dr. Jonathan Calbayan, the Public Health Officer/Coordinator, UNHCR Representation Office in Rwanda, as of June, 30th, 2021, Rwanda has 127, 626 refugee population spread in 6 camps.
The UNHCR data shows during the timeframe mentioned above, 1,303 refugees tested positive for COVID 19 and 80% of them recovered from the infection.
Dr. Jonatan said that as of June, 30th 2021 about 255 cases were still active and 0.5% of the total infected people died while 556 (0.4%) refugees were fully vaccinated.
