Letter from Dr. Miriam
Dear Friends,
We are excited to share with you the many successes Basic Health has made in the past few years. I am so fortunate that what began as my “passionate” project during medical school and residency has grown into something so much larger than I could have ever dreamed.
Since 2006 Basic Health has been working alongside the Salvadoran Ministry of Health and local non-profit organizations to improve El Salvador’s rural cervical cancer prevention programs. To this end, we have helped update national cervical cancer guidelines, written technical and policy manuals for providers, and held seven medical training delegations during which 64 Salvadoran healthcare providers have been trained in low-cost, low-tech methods of cervical cancer screening and treatment. During these delegations we have screened over 6000 women, treated 74 cervical pre-cancers, and diagnosed and treated 8 cervical cancers. In 2009 alone, we screened over 2300 women, coordinated follow-up for 16 women suspicious for invasive cancer, and provided treatment and support to two women diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Even more exciting is that in January 2009 our trained-providers began screening women in the rural communities they serve. Seven doctor-nurse teams have already screened over 1,000 women. These healthcare providers travel, sometimes over three hours each way, often to continue their journey by boat or hike, in order to reach women living in the most remote, rural villages. If it were not for these courageous men and women, countless Salvadorans would never have access to healthcare, let alone access to a preventative screen for cervical cancer. In 1997 when I carried a duffle bag of Pap Smear kits from my dorm room in Madison, Wisconsin, to take 67 Pap Smears for women in a small village in Northern El Salvador, I never imagined my work would lead to a sustainable, national cancer prevention program.
The future holds exciting new programs for BHI. By the end of 2012 the entire rural population of women in El Salvador will have cervical cancer screening coverage. We are conducting cutting edge research with both domestic and international partners to improve and identify new screening and treatment techniques. We have established a medical immersion study abroad program to provide students with the opportunity to engage in an international public health initiative. We are also providing training consultations to organizations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean looking to improve their cervical cancer prevention programs.
We are proud of the work we do, and we cannot thank our generous supporters enough for helping us achieve so many goals. We look forward to forging new partnerships in the coming year, and identifying new and effective tools to aid in the prevention of cervical cancer. Thank you for believing in us to continue working towards a world without cervical cancer.
Sincerely,
Miriam Cremer