Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Starting in 2009, Peru will export to Bolivia, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries an antidote for snake poison in powder presentation, which has been developed by scientists of the Peruvian National Institute of Health (INS) administered by Peru’s Ministry of Health.

This product (anti-ophidic serum, freeze-dried into powder) is used in the treatment of venomous snakebites or stings, such as Bothrops, Lachesis and Rattlesnakes, which often live in the Amazon Rainforest, INS director Patricia García.

In Latin America, only Colombia and Costa Rica have developed this antidote in powder presentation, with the same properties of the liquid presentation.

It must be dissolved before it can be injected by using intravenous syringe, she stated.

“It works as an immediate painkiller, so the victim can go to the hospital and be treated. We launched this serum two weeks ago and it is produced by the Peruvian National Institute of Health (INS) only. We are starting to produce a new batch to be finished in December,” she told Andina news agency.

News source: ANDINA

More than 1,300 people living in the Andean department of Huancavelica, Peru have received free medical care from qualified doctors of the Peruvian American Medical Society (PAMS) with support from the mining company Buenaventura.

PAMS is an organization founded with the purpose of uniting all Peruvian physicians to improve medical education, health and cultural relations between Peru and the United States.

This is the second time that PAMS doctors arrive in this Andean department to provide social work services.

One month ago, they offered medical care to poor people in the city of Cajamarca and surrounding provinces.

During Huancavelica's campaign, which is taking place from August 8 - 22, people from various rural communities are receiving health care services in fields such as pulmonology, obstetrics, gynecology and dentistry.

Furthermore, the medical mission, consisting of over 50 health professionals, perform surgery, pediatric, general and thoracic surgery, among others.

This visit includes the delivery of medicine and medical equipment worth over $18,000 for the local hospital.

News source: ANDINA

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

The United Nations Population Fund - UNFPA is interested in financing a project to research how well Peruvian women would accept the use of female condoms, reported the state news agency Andina.

According to Lucy del Carpio, the Health Ministry coordinator for the National Strategy on Sexual Health and Reproduction, the UNFPA has already funded projects and programs to foster the use of female condoms in countries such as Brazil and Zimbabwe.

"The idea is to empower women on this crucial subject and prevent HIV and AIDS, the transmission of sexual diseases and family planning, affirmed Lucy del Carpio.

She explained that female condoms were just as safe as male condoms and had proven to be an effective product over the years they had been on the market.

Del Carpio affirmed this study should be carried out in Peru to know if female condoms will be rejected by Peruvian women the way diaphragms and pills have been.

"In some sectors and regions of the country women are too modest and don't like to touch their vagina," said Del Carpio.

"That's why this study will let us know if this mentality has changed or in what areas we can begin to inform women on this method."

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

A 19-year-old single mother from Peru's highlands was diagnosed with abnormal breast growth when her mammary glands began producing milk during her pregnancy and did not stop.

Patricia Flores Gil, a native of the highland region of Cajamarca never suspected that when her breasts began to grow during the beginning of her pregnancy that they would not stop.

Five months into her pregnancy, they had reached an abnormal size, at which time her father Inocencio Flores decided to gather their savings and take his daughter to a hospital in Chiclayo, a city on Peru's northern coastal plain.

Doctors ruled out it was a tumor and admitted the teenager into Las Mercedes Hospital. Last week, Patricia gave birth to a baby girl.

The new mother had to remain at the hospital as doctors ran further tests.

During her stay, local media reported that Patricia received a great deal of help, support and sympathy from the twenty women that were on her floor at the hospital.

Dany Pérez, a hospital chief at Las Mercedes explained that Patricia had to undergo a special treatment and had to have her mammary glands cut to stop the growth of her breasts.

Doctors released Patricia from the hospital, stating she would have to continue her treatment in Cajamarca and that her breasts should return to their size.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Peru's health minister, Hernán Garrido Lecca has announced that his ministry is to bring forth a set of proposals aimed at modifying alcohol-consumption laws in the Andean country.

The announcement was made Sunday at the inauguration of the Love and Control campaign, a government program that hopes to reduce the excessive consumption of alcohol in Peru.

According to Garrido Lecca, his ministry's proposals are directed towards controlling the hours when alcohol is consumed and the sanctions placed on establishments that sell to minors.

Rómulo Pizarro, head of the National Commission for Development and a Life without Drugs (Devida) criticized municipalities for their ineffective work and assured the consumption of alcohol among minors was one of the country's biggest problems when attempting to reduce alcohol abuse in Peru.

Statistics from Devida show that approximately 1.5 million Peruvians have an alcohol abuse problem.

Furthermore, it was reported that 10 was the average age at which Peruvians began drinking - two years earlier than the average age in 2002.

In 2007, the Andean country's national police registered 20,000 cases of domestic violence involving a drunk attacker.

It was reported that 25 percent of the cases were in Lima.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

It is estimated that 50 percent of mothers in Peru with a child that has an acute respiratory illness give their children medication without seeing a doctor, said a press release issued by the country's ministry of health (MINSA).

Self-medication is a habit the general population needs to get rid of, said Ildauro Aguirre Sosa, a pediatric pneumologist at San Bartolome Hospital.

"A lot of times common colds are viral and don't require antibiotics and that's why we recommend that when a child gets a cold (parents) should go to their nearest health center," said Aguirre.

"(Parents) should not self medicate because it is not necessary and are wasting money in vain."

The pediatrician explained that only one of every twenty acute respiratory illnesses was pneumonic, stating common symptoms were frequent, strong coughs and the caving in of a child's chest when he/she breathed.

"We always recommend that a child be taken to a health establishment when he/she has a respiratory problem," said Aguirre.

The specialist assured that the best way to avoid these types of illnesses was to eat a balanced diet and avoid abrupt temperature changes.

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

As Peru's Health Minister, Hernán Garrido - Lecca took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new hospital in Pisco, he lamented that it had taken one year for construction to begin.

Garrido - Lecca presided over the ceremony that marks the beginning of the construction of Pisco's new San Juan de Dios de Pisco Hospital, which is to be located in the Fundo de Alto area.

At the ceremony, he explained that even though the construction of the building had been considered an emergency, a great deal of obstacles had been placed in the path of those that wanted to have the hospital built.

40 million soles are to be invested in the new hospital, which is to be four storeys high and have an area of 28,000 square meters (301,389 square feet).

Furthermore, it was announced the new building is to have 83 beds and a modern emergency room as well as doctors' offices for non-emergency cases.

Even though he complained that the reconstruction of the areas affected by the earthquake was moving slowly, the governor of Ica, Rómulo Triveño thanked the health minister for his support.

Peru’s President Alan García highlighted on Tuesday morning that in the last two years work formalization has allowed the incorporation of one and a half million new workers into the State's health care system.

In addition, he indicated that with the recent Small and Medium Enterprise Law, about 400,000 productive units would become formal operators and millions of new workers would have public health insurance.

“One and a half million more people have public insurance. This is just the beginning. We are getting ready to insure millions more. They will be the workers of the small and medium enterprise, for which we have approved a historic law”, he stated.

The president inaugurated the Basic Unit of Primary Health Service (UBAPS) Huaycán - Essalud.

News source: ANDINA

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

A study carried out by Peru's Ministry of Health revealed that 90 percent of Peruvian adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 who did not have a boyfriend or girlfriend and were sexually active did not use any type of contraceptive.

Among the adolescents that did apply some method of protection, studies showed that only 6.4 percent used condoms, shots or birth control pills.

As family planning day was celebrated in the Andean country, Melitón Arce Rodríguez, the vice-minister of health encouraged teenagers to go to health centers to receive orientation and counseling on the array of free birth control methods offered by the Ministry of Health.

These measures will help keep teenage girls from having their first child under the age of twenty, reported Terra News.

Peru's Ministry of Health has been offering free counseling on the subject as well as complementary birth control methods since 1995.