Agnes Binagwaho

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho
Photo of Dr. Agnes Binagwaho
Born	Rwanda
Occupation	Rwandan Minister of Health
Nationality	Rwanda

Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), is a Rwandan pediatrician and serves as Minister of Health of Rwanda. From October 2008 to May 2011, she served as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Rwanda. Dr. Binagwaho currently resides in Kigali, Rwanda.

Current Activities

Dr. Binagwaho is currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine in Harvard Medical School. She chairs the Rwanda Country Coordinating Mechanism of The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Dr. Binagwaho is the co-chair of the Salzburg Global Seminar “Innovating for Value in Health Care Delivery: better cross-border learning, smarter adaptation and adoption.” She is a member of the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries. Dr. Binagwaho also serves on the International Strategic Advisory Board for the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. She received an Honorary Doctor of Sciences from Dartmouth College in 2010, and is presently pursuing her Ph.D. at the National University of Rwanda.

Previous Positions

From 2002-2008, Dr. Binagwaho was Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission. During that period she has served as the Chair of the Rwandan Steering Committee for the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief was responsible for the management of the World Bank MAP Project in Rwanda; served on the country’s High Commission on Aid Policy; co-coordinated the United Nations Task Force of Millennium Development Goals Project for HIV/AIDS and Access to Essential Medicines under the leadership of Jeffrey Sachs, for the Secretary General of the United Nations ; and, from 2006–2009, co-chaired the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS, an independent alliance of researchers, implementers, policy makers, activists, and people living with HIV. Dr. Binagwaho also served on the Health Advisory Board for Time Magazine.

Medical Career

Dr. Binagwaho obtained her medical training in Belgium and France and specialized in emergency pediatrics, neonatology, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS in children and adults. She serves as a member of several boards, foundations, and journals combating AIDS and infant mortality, including the African Advisory Board of the Steven Lewis Foundation, the advisory board of the Friends of the Global Fund Africa and the advisory committee of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the editorial board of Journal of Health and Human Rights, the editorial board for the Public Library of Science. Dr. Binagwaho served as member of the steering committee for the Multi-Country Support Program on SSR/HIV/AIDS, an advisory body of the Royal Tropical Institute of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is also a founding board member of the Tropical Institute of the Community Health and Development in Africa, based in Kismu, Kenya.She is also known to have cut salaries of health professionals in Rwanda since she took the office.

Twitter/SMS Discussions: Mondays with the Minister

In October 2011, Dr. Binagwaho launched a series of online discussions through Twitter around topics related to global health policy and Rwanda’s national health sector. Twitter users from around Rwanda and around the world have joined Dr. Binagwaho in three discussions (as of December 2011) about family planning policy in Africa, building a national health sector, and malnutrition in Rwanda. In December 2011, Dr. Binagwaho partnered with the Rwandan-American ICT company Nyaruka to allow Rwandans to contribute questions and comments to Mondays with the Minister discussions via SMS.

Research and Activism

Dr. Binagwaho is focused on research in the intersection of health and social and political sciences. Her studies and publications aim to improve access to prevention, care and treatment for HIV/AIDS and other diseases. She actively fights for children’s rights and promotes gender equity in Rwanda and around the world. She is at the vanguard in the fight against HIV/AIDS, striving to find effective methodologies to advance interventions to diminish and eliminate the burden of the disease.Although She is an activist in Community Health and Primary health care ,She is dramatically opposed to the Family Medicine practice in Rwanda.

Publications

The following are Dr. Binagwaho's peer-reviewed articles:

• Plantin P, Jouan N, Karangwa A (spouse name of Binagwaho A), Gavanou J, Cauvin JM, Schollhammer M, Sizun J, Guillois B, Sassolas B, Collet M, et al. “Variations of the skin permeability in premature newborn infants. Value of the skin vasoconstriction test with neosynephrine,” Archives françaises de pédiatrie 1992; 49(7): 623-25.
• Sizun J, Karangwa A (spouse name of Binagwaho A), Giroux JD, Masure O, Simitzis AM, Alix D, De Parscau L. “Malassezia furfur-related colonization and infection of central venous catheters : a prospective study in a pediatric intensive care unit,” Intensive Care Medicine 1994 20(7):496-9.
• Binagwaho A, et al. “HIV infection among African children,” Rwanda Medical Journal 1998; 29(62).
• Spence D, Merriman A, Binagwaho A. “Palliative care in African and the Caribbean: It must be made a public health priority,” PLoS Medicine 2004; 1(1): e5
• Bell P, Binagwaho A. “The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS,” The Lancet 2006; 368(9550): 1850-51
• Binagwaho A. “The right of children in developing countries to be born and live HIV-free,” Health and Human Rights: An International Journal 2008 10(1)
• Binagwaho A, Noguchi J, Senyana-Mottier MN, Smith Fawzi MC. (2009) “Community-Centered Integrated Services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Rwanda,” for the Joint Learning Initiative of Children and HIV/AIDS. http://www.jlica.org/userfiles/file/RwandaCase-FINAL-Sep19-revised.pdf
• Wyatt CM, Shi Q, Novak JE, Hoover DR, Szczech L, Mugabo JS, Binagwaho A, Cohen M, Mutimura E, Anastos K. “Prevalence of kidney disease in HIV-infected and uninfected Rwandan women,” PLoS One 2011; 6(3):e18352
• Binagwaho A, Ratnayake N. “The role of social capital in successful adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Africa.” PLoS Medicine 2009; 6(1): e1000018
• Price JE, Leslie JA, Welsh M, Binagwaho A. “Integrating HIV clinical services into primary health care in Rwanda: a measure of quantitative effects,” AIDS Care 2009; 21(5): 608-14
• Binagwaho A, Ratnayake N, Smith Fawzi MC. “Holding multilateral organizations accountable: the failure of WHO in regards to childhood malnutrition.” Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, Perspectives, http://hhrjournal.org/blog/perspectives/holding-multilateral-orgs-accountable-the-failure-of-who 2009
• Binagwaho A, Fawzi MC, Drobac P, Franke M, Ivers L, Kim JY, Mukherjee J, Noguchi J, Rich M, Stulac S, Farmer P. “HIV, infant feeding and implementation failure: advancing policies for women with HIV infection and attaining the Millennium Development Goals,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2009; 87(8): A-B
• Shumbusho F, van Griensven J, Lowrance D, Turate I, Weaver MA, Price J, Binagwaho A. “Task Shifting for Scale-up of HIV Care: Evaluation of Nurse-Centered Antiretroviral Treatment at Rural Health Centers in Rwanda,” PLoS Medicine 2009; 6(10): e1000163
• Lazar J, Wu X, Shi Q, Kagame A, Cohen M, Knipe R, Binagwaho A, Munyakazi L, Salciccioli L, Shi D, Rosner Z, Fox J, Anastos K. “Arterial wave reflection in HIV-infected and HIV uninfected Rwandan women,” AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 2009; 25(9): 877-82
• Binagwaho A, Pegurri E, Muita J, Bertozzi S. Male circumcision at different ages in Rwanda: a cost-effectiveness study. PLoS Medicine 2009; 7:e1000211
• Basinga P, Gertler P, Binagwaho A, Soucat A, Sturdy J, Vermeersch C. (2009). Paying primary health care centers for performance in Rwanda (policy research working paper 5190). Washington DC, USA: The World Bank
• Cohen MH, Fabri M, Cai X, Shi Q, Hoover D, Binagwaho A, Culhane MA, Mukanyonga H, Karegeya DK, Anastos K. “Prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in HIV-infected and at-risk Rwandan women.” Journal of Women’s Health 2009; 18(11): 1783-91
• Lim Y, Kim JY, Rich ML, Stulac SN, Niyonzima JB, Smith Fawzi MC, Gahire R, Mukaminega M, Getchell M, Peterson CW, Farmer PE, Binagwaho A. “Improving Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Care and Related Services in Eastern Rwanda,” PLoS Medicine 2010; 7(7):e1000302
• Mutimura E, Anastos K, Lin Z, Cohen M, Binagwaho A, Kotler DP. “Effect of HIV infection on body composition and fat distribution in Rwandan women,” Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care 2010; 9(3): 173-78
• Binagwaho A, Ratnayake N, Mukherjee JS, Mugabo J, Karita E, Pegurri E. “When one can infect two: A reflection on the impact of HIV discordance on child HIV infection,” Pan African Medical Journal 2010; 5(10)
• Price J, Binagwaho A. “From medical rationing to rationalizing use of human resources for AIDS care and treatment in Africa: A case of task shifting,” Developing World Bioethics 2010; 10(2): 99-103
• Binagwaho A, Noguchi J, Sebaziga G, Senyana-Mottier MN, Li M, Bump JB, Smith Fawzi MC. (Working Paper). “Transition and development of Rwanda's national HIV monitoring and evaluation system: utilizing innovative technology and fostering local leadership.”
• Chapman J, Koleros A, Delmont Y, Pegurri E, Gahire R, Binagwaho A. “High HIV risk behavior among men who have sex with men in Kigali, Rwanda: Making the case for supportive prevention policy,” AIDS Care 2010; 23(4): 449-55
• Binagwaho A. (2010). Whose Responsibility Is This Anyway? View 2. In J Heymann, L Sherr & R Kidman (Eds.), Protecting Childhood in the AIDS Pandemic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Binagwaho A, Ngabo G, Agbonyitor M, Wagner CM, Redditt V, Drobac P, Murekatete I, Ribakare M, Karema,C. “Determinants of adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected children in Rwanda,” Rwanda Medical Journal 2010; 68(3):32-39
• Franke MF, Stulac SN, Rugira IH, Rich ML, Bucyibaruta JB, Drobac PC, Iyamungu G, Uwamahoro ML, Bryant CM, Binagwaho A, Farmer PE, Mukherjee JS. “High Human Immunodeficiency Virus-free survival of infants born to Human Immunodeficiency Virus-positive mothers in an integrated program to decrease child mortality in rural Rwanda,” The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2011; 30(7): 614-16
• Binagwaho A, Agbonyitor M, Mwanawasa A, Mugwanez P, Irwin A, Karema C “Developing human rights-based strategies to improve health among female sex workers in Rwanda,” Health and Human Rights An International Journal 2011; 12(2) http://www.hhrjournal.org/index.php/hhr/article/view/371/575
• Basinga P, Gertler PJ, Binagwaho A, Soucat ALB, Sturdy J, Vermeersch CMJ.“Effect on maternal and child health services in Rwanda of payment to primary health-care providers for performance: an impact evaluation,” The Lancet 2011; 377:1421-28
• Cohen, MH, Shi Q, Fabri M, Mukanyonga H, Cai X, Hoover DR, Binagwaho A, and Anastos K. “Improvement in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Postconflict Rwandan Women,” Journal of Women’s Health 2011; 20(9):1325-1332
• Mugwaneza P, Shema N, Ruton H, Rukundo A, Lyambabaje A, Bizimana JDD, Tsague L, Wagner CM, Nyankesha E, Muita J, Mutabazi V, Nyemazi JP, Nsanzimana S, Karema C, Binagwaho A. “Under-two child mortality according to maternal HIV status in Rwanda: Assessing Outcomes within the National PMTCT Program,” Pan African Medical Journal 2011; 9:37
• Binagwaho A, Wagner CM, Nutt CT. “HPV Vaccine in Rwanda: Different Disease, Same Double Standard,” The Lancet 2011 378(9807):1916
• Binagwaho A, Fuller A, Dougherty S, Agbonyitor M, Kerry VB, Wagner CM, Ingabire N, Farmer PE. “A Question of Maturity: The Participation, Decision-making and Rights of Children in the Context of HIV/AIDS,” Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies 2011 6(4): 293-300
• Bitega JP, Ngeruka ML, Hategekimana T, Asiimwe A, Binagwaho A. “Safety and Efficacy of the PrePex(TM) Device for Rapid Scale up of Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention in Resource-Limited Settings,” JAIDS 2011; 58(5): e127-34.
• Rich M, Miller AC, Niyigena P, Franke MF, Niyonzima JB, Socci A, Drobac P, Hakizamungu M, Mayfield A, Ruhayisha R, Epino H, Stulac S, Cancedda C, Karamaga A, Nyinonzima S, Yarbrough C, Fleming J, Amoroso C, Mukherjee J, Murray M, Farmer PE, Binagwaho A. “Excellent clinical outcomes and high retention in care among adults in a community-based HIV treatment program in rural Rwanda,” JAIDS 2012; 59(3): e35-42
• Binagwaho A, Agbonyitor M, Rukundo A, Ratnayake N, Ngabo F, Kayumba J, Dowdle B, Chopyak E and Smith Fawzi MC. “Underdiagnosis of Malnutrition in Infants and Young Children in Rwanda: Implications for Attainment of the Millennium Development Goal to End Poverty and Hunger,” International Journal for Equity in Health 2011; 10:61
• Knaul, Felicia Marie, Frenk, Julio and Shulman, Lawrence for the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries. (2011). Closing the Cancer Divide: A Blueprint to Expand Access in Low and Middle Income Countries. Harvard Global Equity Initiative, Boston, MA. [Contributions by Binagwaho A]
• Nsanzimana S, Hinda R, Lowrance DW, Cishahayo S, Nyemazi JP, Muhayimpundu R, Karema C, Raghunathan PL, Binagwaho A, Riedel DJ. “Cell phone- and internet-based monitoring and evaluation of the national antiretroviral treatment program during rapid scale-up in Rwanda: TRACnet, 2004-2010.” JAIDS 2011; 59(2): e17-e23
• Ntahobakurira I, Antara S, Galgalo TB, Kakoma JB, Karema C, Nyatanyi T, Theogene R, Mukabayire O, Lowrance D, Raghunathan P, Ayibazibwe N, Mukanga D, Nsubuga P, Binagwaho A. “The Rwanda Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program: training skilled disease detectives,” Pan African Medical Journal 2011; 10(Supp 1):7
• Ruton H, Mugwaneza P, Shema N, Lyambabaje A, Bizimana JDD, Tsague L, Nyankesha E, Wagner CM, Mutabazi V, Nyemazi JP, Nsanzimana S, Karema C, Binagwaho A. “HIV-free survival among 9-24 month old children born to HIV positive mothers in the Rwandan national PMTCT program – a community based household survey,” Journal of the International AIDS Society 2012; 15(4)
• Binagwaho A, Fuller A, Dougherty S, Agbonyitor M, Kerry VB, Wagner CM, Nzayizera R, Farmer PE. “Adolescents and the Right to Health: Eliminating Age-Related Barriers to HIV/AIDS Services in Rwanda,” AIDS Care 2012; 24(7): 936-942
• Binagwaho A. Response to Letter titled “Minimally Invasive Male Circumcision” by Sokal et al. JAIDS 2012; 59(5): e100-e101
• Binagwaho A. “Meeting the Challenge of Non-communicable Diseases: We Cannot Wait,” Global Heart 2012; 7(1): 1-2
• Binagwaho A, Wagner CM, Gatera M, Karema C, Nutt CT, Ngabo F. “Achieving high coverage in Rwanda's national human papillomavirus vaccination programme,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2012; 90(8): 623-628
• Williams T, Binagwaho A, Betancourt T. “Transactional sex as a form of child sexual exploitation and abuse in Rwanda: Implications for child security and protection,” Child Abuse & Neglect 2012; 36(4): 354-361.
• Senga J, Rusingiza E, Mucumbitsi J, Binagwaho A, Lys C, Suys B, Carbonez K, Ovaert C, Sluysmans T. “Catheter Interventions in Congenital Heart Disease without a Regular Catheterization Laboratory Equipment: The Chain of Hope experience in Rwanda,” Pediatric Cardiology 2012 [Epub ahead of print]
• Lu C, Chin B, Lewandowski JL, Basinga P, Hirschhorn LR, Hill K, Murray M, Binagwaho A. “Towards Universal Health Coverage: An Evaluation of Rwanda Mutuelles in its First Eight Years,” PLoS ONE 2012; 7(6): e39282
• Binagwaho A, Nyatanyi T, Nutt CT, Wagner CM. “Disease outbreaks: Support for a cholera vaccine stockpile,” Nature 2012; 487(7405): 39
• Mutabazi V, Kaplan SA, Rwamasirabo E, Bitega JP, Ngeruka ML, Savio D, Karema C, Binagwaho A. “HIV prevention: male circumcision comparison between a nonsurgical device to a surgical technique in resource-limited settings: a prospective, randomized, nonmasked trial,” JAIDS 2012; 61(1): 49-55
• Betancourt T, Scorza P, Meyers-Ohki S, Mushashi C, Kayiteshonga Y, Binagwaho A, Beardslee WR. “Validating the center for epidemiological studies depression scale for children in Rwanda,” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2012; [Epub ahead of print]

External links

• Rwandan Ministry of Health
• Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Harvard Medical School, Catalyst Profile
• Dr. Agnes' blog

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