The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week warned that Ebola is now entrenched in the capital cities of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone where 70 per cent of people are affected. Although these countries have appealed for more aid to help fight the disease, it has continued to spread in all settings. The outbreak has killed more than 3,860 people, mainly in West Africa with more than 200 health workers among the victims. At least one in 20 of those killed in the latest outbreak were medical workers. Shockingly further reports reveal that, John Taban Dada, a Ugandan gynaecologist and surgeon, is at the bottom of this list. As if Ebola going wild is not enough, its sister haemorrhagic fever, Marburg, reared its claws across the border. Officials from the Ministry of Health are to monitor the evolution of the virus in Uganda before issuing a public alert in Rwanda. According to Nathan Mugume, the head of communications at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, in such situations, border surveillance and monitoring will be scaled up. What a timely intervention coming with the health minister’s call for public hospitals to work hard to improve their performance to earn international accreditation. Dr Agnes Binagwaho was addressing managers of health facilities during a meeting in Rubavu that aimed at recognising public hospitals that underwent the first step of accreditation. The accreditation process of Rwandan hospitals started in 2010. Only King Faisal Hospital Rwanda has a full accreditation certificate. The five hospitals are Ruhengeri, Bushenge, Kibungo, Rwamagana, and Ruhango. The first four completed the first phase of accreditation, while Ruhango Hospital still lacks some requirements to meet the expectations. This process is monitored by a standards development taskforce certified by Joint Commission International, a US organisation that accredits hospitals around the world.
