According to the Health Minister, Sabin Nsanzimana, kidney transplants, a medical procedure to replace a patient's failing kidney with a healthy one from a donor, will start to be done in Rwanda on May 22 of this year. He claimed that the country's medical industry would greatly advance.
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Nsanzimana stated that the program would start at King Faisal Hospital, where it is anticipated that four kidney transfers will be carried out.
On May 11, Nsanzimana disclosed the information during the budget hearing for the fiscal year 2023–2024, when the Ministry of Health and its associated organizations were presenting their budget for that year.
He emphasized preventing these fatal illnesses in response to MP Frank Habineza's argument that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) must be effectively managed.
He stated that NCDs have a complete plan, including prevention and management, and even kidney transplants in case [some] NCDs are not well treated.
By passing the law controlling medical services, including kidney transplants, he acknowledged the role of lawmakers. According to him, this has helped expedite the process so that the kidney transplant program will begin on May 22.
On that day, a group of medical professionals training and those traveling from the University of Michigan in the United States would come to Rwanda and conduct roughly four kidney transplants at King Faisal Hospital.
This would be a great accomplishment for them. Information from the Ministry of Health states that the King Faisal Hospital has already started updating the location for dialysis (a treatment to assist renal failure patients' bodies to filter and purify blood) and has built up a recovery area.
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Rwanda has sent 67 people abroad for kidney transplants in the last seven years, with government assistance supplied through the Medical Referral Board, which works on referrals of patients.
Each patient costs $804,000 (Rwf 900 million), or $12,000 (about Rwf 12 million). However, the ministry claimed that although more people required the service, they needed more funding to get it.
