Everything changed for Dr. Cremer at that moment.

It became her life’s mission to ensure that no woman loses her life to this preventable disease. To ensure that young women and girls have accessibility to preventive measures and all populations of women worldwide can break the barriers to advocate for their own health and medical care.

Dr. Cremer got to work.

Dr. Cremer began to conduct a campaign where she performed close to 70 pap screenings on women living in the village and formed relationships with pathologists in the United States who read the slides for free. As the years went by, Dr. Cremer returned to El Salvador multiple times, leading delegations that provided reproductive health care and cervical cancer screening for thousands of women. With the support of dedicated volunteers, pediatric check-ups and eye care clinics were also made available to the local inhabitants during these medical delegations.

BHI is aligned with the World Health Organization’s call to action to Eliminate Cervical Cancer from the Globe.

In 2007, Dr. Miriam Cremer incorporated Basic Health International as a charitable organization in the United States, with one mission: to eradicate cervical cancer. Two years later, Basic Health International opened its first office in El Salvador, where both research and implementation work takes place.

One of BHI’s proudest achievements is its partnership with the Ministry of Health in El Salvador (MOH) in The Cervical Cancer Prevention in El Salvador (CAPE) program, which consisted of the implementation of a low-cost HPV test and management of women with abnormal screening results. The success of this screen and treat strategy led the government of El Salvador to adopt this modality into their national guidelines. The plan to expand the program nationally in 2019, has been temporarily halted due to COVID-19 but remains an example that BHI’s approach can be used as a model for other low and middle-income countries.

We go where there is a need.

BHI has taken its fieldwork, diplomacy and advocacy models, expertise in research and innovation, and built a model that communities worldwide can use. This model can also be applied to other viral diseases affecting vulnerable communities, like the COVID-19 crisis. Currently, BHI assists in clinical trials and programs focused on cervical cancer in El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Haiti, and China.  Our work during COVID-19 has expanded additional research sites for test validation in El Salvador, Malawi, Nigeria, and Paraguay.