Rutshuru’s General Referral Hospital (GRH) is supported by MSF since 2005 and it is the territory’s only access to secondary care. When conflicts happen, the territory is regularly divided from the rest of the country.
The Malaria epidemic that started in November 2013 never ended. In 2014 the number of cases in Rutshuru remained high all year long: 293 patients were cared after each week in the Emergency Department; 61% were less than 5 years old; among them 80% had to be hospitalized in the Pediatric Department (which is often saturated, with a 0.6% fatality rate). A peak of pediatric admissions was recorded in October and November with more than 350 admissions per week; 76% of cases showed severe anemia that needed a transfusion. Between July and December, the Intensive Care Department cared after 306 patients suffering from severe malaria, 52% of them were less than 5 years old (52 children and a 25% fatality rate in October alone).
More globally, in 2014 at the GRH, 419 victims of sexual violence have been taken care of; 30 993 patients have been seen in the Emergency Department; 28 836 patients were admitted, 3 349 in Surgery, 1 308 in Intensive Care and 13 923 in the Pediatric Department; 8 272 surgeries and 4 564 childbirths have been performed; and 360 cholera cases have been taken care of.