Experts in Nuclear Medicine of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico affirmed that Bolivia is among the countries lagging behind in Latin America and the world in cancer care due to the lack of technological equipment and fundamentally due to the lack of human resources.
According to the World Health Organization, in terms of equipment, the average number of scintigraphy devices is 1.5 per million inhabitants. “In Bolivia that figure does not even reach one.” Besides, for every million inhabitants there must be at least one equipment to 1.5 PET devices, here in Bolivia they only have one device for the entire population.
Quetzali Pitalúa, a nuclear medicine specialist from Mexico, said that Government took the first step in the care of cancer patients, with the announcement of the execution of oncological hospitals and the purchase of linear accelerators. He indicated that for this there must be a complex preparation in the subject of human resources.
“Professional oncologists must be trained. And for the management of equipment, such as medical physicists and radiologists. They can make agreements with other countries to specialize them. ” he added.
