Rwandans should be aware of stroke silent killer- PSF

By Elias Hakizimana.

The department of Health Programmes in the Private Sector Federation of Rwanda warns the public about the deadly disease ‘stroke’ that continues to take away lives of experts.

The disease attacks mostly people who spend their time designing, thinking or working on intellectual concepts.

Leon Pierre Rusanganwa, Coordinator of Health Programs in the Private Sector Federation of Rwanda said that it is time to raise awareness of this disease so that Rwandans know how to prevent it and how to help survivors. He added that once the country loses an expert loses expertise.

“As we celebrate the World Stroke Awareness Day, we want to make the public aware of this silent killer as most of people don’t have information about it. We want to sensitize them about its prevention measures and how the patients can behave once they reveal the symptoms,” Rusanganwa said.

When somebody has a stroke, every second that goes by is crucial, and as brain tissue and millions of neurons begin to fade away, time could not be more precious.

The World Stroke Awareness Day Campaign aims to raise awareness of stroke signs and the benefits of timely access to emergency medical care.

Signs and symptoms

Signs of a stroke include trouble speaking, sudden difficulty speaking or understanding or sudden confusion, even if temporary. There are also vision problems, sudden trouble with vision, even if temporary, headache, sudden severe and unusual headache, dizziness and sudden loss of balance, especially with any of the above signs.

In other countries, employers have a legal obligation to support employees affected by stroke. They must make reasonable adjustments to allow them to do their job and ensure survivors have the same access to opportunities as others.

This can mean reducing working hours or providing extra support or aids for the stroke survivors.

Eustache Rukelibuga, Spokesperson of Stroke Action Rwanda, and Stroke survivor said that they started a couple of years ago to advocate and build awareness of the issue as many people did not know the disease.

He said that stroke survivors still face stigma and community discrimination, starting from their families.

“Sometimes the members of our organization are denied by their family mates to answer our calls regarding stroke awareness campaigns, and instead pick a call on behalf of the survivor, saying that their person has not a problem,…” Rukelibuga said.

He also noted that a stroke survivor can spend 15 years working with an institution and ends up by getting fired after he suddenly suffer from stroke.

“Others lose job opportunities at oral interview once it is revealed that they have kind of disability resulted from stroke,” he added.

In Rwanda, the World Stroke Awareness Day was celebrated on October 29, 2022 by PSF Rwanda in partnership with Rwanda Biomedical Center and Stroke Action Rwanda.

Dr. Evariste Ntaganda, the head of RBC’s cardiovascular department said that Stroke has shifted from the 7th place to the 2nd among the major deadly diseases as per recent statistics of 2019.

“Stroke is on the rise, accelerated by high blood pressure which is also increasing at 15.9 percent, diabetes, obesity and lack of physical exercise to ease blood circulation in the body,” he said.

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