The executive director of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN), Hortensia Jiménez, assured in previous statements to this news agency that this high-tech health complex will be operational this year.
Jiménez recalled that after this inauguration, the Highlands will have three facilities of this type to combat oncological diseases.
Bolivia’s first CMNyR was inaugurated on March 6, 2022 in the Parcoparta area of the city of El Alto in the presence of Arce and Vice President David Choquehuanca.
The dignitary was also present in September 2022 at the inauguration of the CMNyR of Santa Cruz on the occasion of the 212th anniversary of the libertarian achievement of this department.
Jiménez explained that the centers in La Paz, El Alto and Santa Cruz are the same and have the same capacity in terms of care, for which this network of sanatoriums has specialized Bolivian professionals.
The modern infrastructure was built with an investment of more than 50 million dollars each and enables advanced diagnostics and treatments.
To fulfill the first function, the nuclear medicine area will have two state-of-the-art devices: one for positron emission tomography (PET/CT) and another for single photon emission (Spect/CT).
The first enables the precise location of a tumor in the human body and the second makes it easier to detect and control bone, heart and brain diseases.
In addition, modern facilities have three areas for the treatment of oncological diseases, one for external beam radiation therapy, with two linear accelerators, a duplication that prevents operations from being interrupted if one of the devices needs maintenance.
High dose rate brachytherapy relies on cobalt 60 as a radiation source and has advanced technology that reduces cervical cancer treatment from 72 continuous hours to less than one.
In the field of chemotherapy, oncologists have the qualifications to carry out all the necessary combinations of drugs and antibodies to achieve the greatest possible effectiveness in fighting the disease, it said.
According to the managing director of ABEN, such a facility can serve up to 120 people daily and has a multidisciplinary team of doctors, physicists, engineers and technicians.
Another advantage for Bolivians is the free provision of all these services through the unified health system funded by the national government.
lam/jpm