ACTIVE PROJECTS

Centro de Obras Sociales and the Maternidad Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital has launched a special collaboration with the Centro de Obras Sociales and the Maternidad Hospital in Chimbote, Peru. Sponsored by the Volunteerism Committee of the BWH Physicians' Council, this project encourages BWH clinicians to contribute their time in Chimbote and supports the local health care infrastructure with equipment donations and financial assistance. To read more about this project, please visit Postcards from the Field

Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Peru: A Revolution in Treatment for Developing Countries

Working with its sister organization, Socios En Salud, Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities (DSMHI) physicians and Partners in Health (PIH) developed a community-based program in a shantytown north of Lima to deliver individualized, directly observed therapy (DOT) for MDR-TB. Each patient's treatment regimen was specifically designed to attack the strain of the diseases with which he or she was infected. Despite the fact that these were chronic patients with extensive damage to the lung's internal structure, more than 80 percent of patients within the pilot group were cured.

With generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation this pilot project was scaled to the national level. Today the program is administered by Peru's Ministry of Health, which continues to utilize the original treatment model to provide care for all of the country's MDR-TB patients.

PIH is a non-profit organization affiliated with the DSMHI at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Read more about this project.