“Every Rwandan Ought to Be Proud”

Paul Farmer, in a photo taken by The New Times during a recent interview.
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Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, chief of BWH's Division of Global Health Equity and Partners In Health co-founder, recently told “The New Times” that Rwanda is on track with its work addressing disparities in health care.

He spoke of the progress the country has made so far in health care provision: “There is remarkable progress made, especially if you look at fertility rates, mortality rates or life expectancy. If you look at only six indicators such as death due to Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and during child birth and from vaccine preventable illnesses and under five, significant progress has been made. Rwanda is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa on track to meet all the health-related Millennium Development Goals.

If you look at those six indicators, you see that Rwanda has the steepest decline in mortality ever documented anywhere at any time, so that means even more than Europe after the war. It’s very striking. Every Rwandan ought to be proud of that.”

Read the full interview in “The New Times,” a daily newspaper in Rwanda.

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