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Americas Amigas donated two new mammogram machines this June to the Brazilian Navy to be used in their floating ship clinics that serve residents in small communities in the Amazon River basin.

The donation of two analog GE Healthcare Performas will provide mammograms to an estimated 4,000 women a year in a northern Brazil region who have never had access to this life-saving technology.

The mammography machines were donated to the Brazilian Navy which provides health services to the population of the Amazon river basin operating from the ships: NAsH Doutor Montenegro and the NA Para. The Navy uses these ships to provide dental treatments, gynecological treatments, intensive care, vaccines, etc. as they can reach these remote areas via these ships.

The ships will first be retrofitted to accommodate the heavy machines and are expected to offer their mammograms in late August. GE Health has given support to help the Navy to adapt these machines on their ships. GE Healthcare is providing training and an extra year of maintenance and warranty.

Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson A. Jobim stated, “The needy river populations of the Amazon region will be the great beneficiaries of the mammography machines donated by Americas Amigas. The hospital-ships in which the machines will be installed annually serve tens of thousands of patients along the rivers in the Amazon area. In most cases, the benefitted communities depend entirely on military-provided healthcare, and, from now on, will have access to this instrument of breast cancer prevention, without having to travel days to the nearest hospital in a big city.”

These two machines bring the number purchased this year with donations raised by Americas Amigas to a total of 10, and are expected to screen approximately 45,000 women for breast cancer throughout Brazil.

Americas Amigas founder, Barbara Sobel, noted, “Americas Amigas is proud to be part of this pioneer project, with the Navy in the Amazon Basin, where women will receive, for the first time, breast cancer evaluations.” Ms. Sobel, the wife of a former Ambassador to Brazil and who now resides in New York, was inspired to start this program by a similar initiative sponsored by the US Department of State.

In Brazil, it is estimated that every 36 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer. There, 44% of all breast cancer cases are detected at an advanced stage, making it extremely difficult to treat and cure. As a result, death rates in Brazil are very high: 42% of women diagnosed with breast cancer do not survive.

The Pan American Health and Education Foundation, a partner of Americas Amigas headquartered in Washington, D.C., has set up a page on their website dedicated to this project and is accepting donations that will be used to support Americas Amigas.

Source: Americas Amigas