BUJUMBURA December 13th (ABP) – The National Association of Biomedical Technologists of Burundi (ANTEBBU) organized on Saturday, December 9, 2022 a 2nd edition medical biology conference under the theme: “Laboratory contributions to sexual and reproductive health”.
On that occasion, the interim director of the medical biology laboratories at the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Dr Nonera Jean Marie, recalled that during the Merck Foundation conference held on June 16, 2022 on the sidelines of the world month of awareness on infertility, the chairperson of the Merck Foundation, Dr. Rasha Kalej, said that in Africa, the incidence of infertility is very high, also specifying that one in four couples is infertile.
According to Dr. Kalej, about 85% of the causes of infertility are due to untreated infectious diseases, unsafe abortions or deliveries, early marriage, and others. Nevertheless, even if these causes seem avoidable and treatable in certain cases, the efforts made for their reduction are not satisfactory.
He specified that in Burundi, this theme is rarely mentioned despite the fact that it remains a major health problem both economically and socially. He pointed to the stigmatization of women from infertile couples, and the enormous expenses to try to recover fertility due to the lack of adequate infertility care services in Burundi.
According to the chairman of ANTEBBU, Mr. Emmanuel Hakizimana, medical biology is a branch which consists in diagnosing the various diseases. In the case of infertility, medical biology will determine the problem that is in an infertile couple, if the problem is in the man or in the woman, and at what level.
According to Mr. Hakizimana, medical biology is also involved in monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment given by the gynecologist. He did not fail to point out that this conference was organized to make better known and better understood the impact of infertility in Burundi, thanks to an effective action of communication, education, training and reinforcement of the bases of knowledge and evidence through diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and research. He asked decision-makers in general and those of health in particular, to think about the establishment of a specialized center for the treatment of infertility. After the conference, an information, communication and awareness campaign on infertility is planned, he said. Looking to the future, the ANTEBBU intends to carry out voluntary tests for infertile couples in order to obtain figures proving the extent of the phenomenon.
Dr. Barnabé Mbonimpa, obstetrician-gynecologist at the Cesare clinic, said that the main causes of infertility in women are hormonal disorders, poorly treated infections, malformations in the fallopian tubes, ovulatory disorders and others. He specified that infertility is different from sterility insofar as infertility can heal once taken care of in time and for the case of sterility it is when it is found that in a couple, the man or the woman has a problem that cannot be corrected. He took that opportunity to invite infertile couples to consult the doctor being together so that the gynecologist can detect the origin of the problem, instead of thinking that the causes of infertility are on the woman’s side only with the fact that Burundian culture takes male infertility as a taboo subject.