Rwanda vaccination program have started in 1978 and EPI in Rwanda became operational in 1980, and before 2002 Rwanda used to give vaccine of 6 different diseases (BCG, OPV, TT, DPT, measles Vaccine).
EPI is compromised in 3 principals:
Routine vaccination: fix and outreach program, Supplemental Immunization activities, Surveillance for EPI targeted diseases.
Worldwide in order to have a vaccination program is not cheap and for some countries it is still an issues to get their citizens vaccinated.
To have vaccination program you need 2 important things:
-Vaccine
-Capacity: Infrastructure (Qualified materials used during vaccination that are on world level standards).
*Personnel (Qualified people know as doctors and nurses that help in giving vaccine to the people).
Ignoring of these difficulties and expensive materials and tools needed to establish vaccination program Rwanda through RBC (Ministry of Health) have built a system to track the records of individuals who have been vaccinated and store them in their databases so that they have track on people who have been vaccinated and the ones who didn’t get vaccinated.
E-tracker/HMLS is the system name that have been developed by MOH/HISP company to help the government especially in the sector of health to keep track of individuals who have been vaccinated and also remind them through messages sent to the individuals’ cellphones to remind them that they must go to the nearest hospitals to get vaccinated.
Rwanda is investing a lot of money in the health and safety of its citizens so Rwanda invested a lot of money in vaccine research and manufacturing of vaccines so that we don’t always relay on the western countries for help or get surprised by pandemics unprepared like covid-19 did.
by Ihirwe Jean Christian
