Indian govt donates hepatitis drugs worth $1.5m to Rwanda

The government of India has donated drugs for hepatitis B and C worth over USD 1.5 million (around RWF 1.4 billion) to Rwanda. This is expected to help the East African country to contain the disease and subsidize the expensive treatment.

The supplies were handed over to the Ministry of Health recently. The Government of Rwanda estimates that the drugs will treat 2000 patients with hepatitis C and 5000 patients of hepatitis B. Statistics from the Ministry of Health put the prevalence of hepatitis B and C at 4.8 percent in Rwanda, The New Times reported.

Rwanda unveiled a national campaign in December 2018 to uproot the deadly disease hepatitis C. The liver disease caused by hepatitis viruses scar the organ and lead the person to death. “This donation finds several efforts by the government to heal Hepatitis patients. For example, last year, we screened over 9000 patients with Hepatitis C and B and out of them 1000 patients are on treatment. This donation comes as additional support to eradicating Hepatitis C in five years as our target,” Dr. Patrick Ndimubanzi, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health said.

According to Dr. Ndimubanzi, the donated drugs from India will benefit 2,000 patients with Hepatitis B and 5,000 with C. Since hepatitis drugs are expensive, many people on treatment have been supported by the Government. However, the prices have been dropping lately as manufacturing technology is getting more accessible in the pharmaceutical industry.

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