Pre-service training: the strategy to fight diabetes and hypertension in Burundi

The University of Burundi in collaboration with Cordaid has organized training sessions to equip new doctors with capacity to help in the treatment and prevention of diabetes and hypertension that have become a serious health threat in the country.

Organisers and the recipients of the training.

A capacity building pre-service training for the treatment and prevention of diabetes and hypertension organised by the University of Burundi backed by Cordaid was launched on Wednesday 12 October 2016. According to Prof Jean Baptiste Ngomikiza, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Burundi, “hypertension and diabetes have become a great health threat in Burundi. They constitute the third death cause in hospitals. Unfortunately, graduates from the faculties of medicine are not qualified to adequately deal with the diseases because they don’t study about them in depth due to the lack of time”.

Sylvestre Bambara, who has attended the training, has agreed that their university studies didn’t give them sufficient qualification to deal with those non-communicable chronic diseases. He says the importance of the training cannot be overestimated. “Diabetes and hypertension kill many people in our country and we are still lacking in capacity after our graduation. These training sessions constitute for us an invaluable opportunity to master the treatment and prevention of those diseases”, he says.

For the organizers, the training was intended for new graduates the faculties of medicine from Burundi University, Hope Africa University, Ngozi University and Burundian graduates from the faculties of medicine in China and Morocco. Participants will follow the training in two groups of 50 each. The training has both theoretical and practical parts. The former will take two weeks and the latter three months after which participants will be given certificates. Afterwards, they will be dispatched to different rural hospitals where they will help in the care for patients and prevention of the diseases.Additionally, they will supervise nurses.

Zarir Meurat, the representative of Cordaid in Burundi underlines the importance and the necessity of the training given the need of qualified human resources to deal with diabetes and hypertension. “It’s a drop in the ocean when one considers the needs in Burundi health sector. That’s why the Cordaid’s collaboration will be long-term”.