BUJUMBURA March 7th (ABP) – The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, in collaboration with the Agency for the Promotion of Education and Training Abroad, organized Wednesday March 6, 2024, a day of official launch of the 2023-2027 Rehabilitation strategic plan in Burundi.
In her opening remarks, the Director General of Health Services at the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Mrs. Cleophile Akindavyi noted that that ministry has developed the Strategic Rehabilitation Plan in Burundi, for the period 2023 -2027 because that plan represents a crucial lever for the development of rehabilitation in Burundi, aiming to strengthen the efforts of that ministry on several fronts.
She cited in particular the improvement in the quality of services, infrastructure and equipment dedicated to rehabilitation, the strengthening of specialized human resources, the use of data and research to guide actions, the increase in funding allocated in that area and expanded access to assistive technologies.
The Director General of Health Services pointed out that rehabilitation constitutes an essential pillar of health, just like preventive, curative and health promotion care. It offers a crucial therapeutic response to the various public health issues and the resulting disabilities within our society.
For her part, the representative of the World Health Organization WHO, in that activity, Dr Denise Nkezimana specified that the WHO actively contributed to the establishment of that strategic plan, with a view to increasing access all rehabilitation interventions, including physiotherapy, that are tailored, affordable, effective and person-centered at all levels of health needs and that reach people in their communities
Dr Nkezimana, to that end, underlined that rehabilitation brings together all the interventions designed to optimize the functioning and reduce the disability of people suffering from health problems when they interact with their environment.
Therefore, rehabilitation helps a child, adult or elderly person to be as independent as possible in daily activities and allows them to be able to study, work, have hobbies and fulfill important roles in life.
Additionally, rehabilitation can help reduce, manage, or prevent complications associated with many health conditions, including those related to spinal cord injuries, stroke, or fractures.
Globally, she added, an estimated 2.4 billion people are currently living with a health condition for which rehabilitation can be beneficial.
In some low-income countries, such as Burundi, more than 50% of people in need do not benefit from rehabilitation services, highlighting those emergencies such as conflicts, natural disasters and disease outbreaks significantly increase the rehabilitation needs, even as they disrupt rehabilitation services.
Rehabilitation is therefore an important element of universal health coverage and also an essential strategy for achieving the sustainable development goal of enabling healthy lives for all and promoting well-being for all at all ages.
She also affirmed that WHO through its country office will continue to support the efforts of the Burundian government through technical support, in collaboration with development partners and other stakeholders, to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases, by general and rehabilitation needs, particularly because, she stressed, everyone may need rehabilitation at some point in their life, following an injury, surgery and an illness or disorder…
The representative of the Agency for the Promotion of Education and Training Abroad, APEFE, in Burundi, Mr. Olivier Jadin, indicated that rehabilitation care is increasingly essential in Burundi, in Africa and in throughout the world, as the people ages, the epidemiology of disabling diseases increases following road trauma, cardiovascular conditions, respiratory diseases and many others.
Those diseases profoundly disrupt the functioning of people in their social and family environment and, in addition, they cause disability in those who suffer from them and can no longer participate in the activities of daily life.
He did not forget to point out that APEFE will spare no effort to continue its work in synergy with stakeholders in the field, to expand rehabilitation in Burundi’s health system and make it accessible to all.