Until recently, the remote city of Capitán Bado did not have a medical laboratory to perform analyses in the public health center. Now the situation has changed.Imagine a city with 30,000 inhabitants whose doctors had to send their most urgent analysis to another city, hundreds of kilometers away. Many people were simply unable to pay to send their analysis to private laboratories. All this has changed thanks to the expansion and improvement of the clinical laboratory, and the donation of equipment and medical supplies for both the Health Center and the Clinical Labortory by Project CURE, facilitated by USAID’s Northern Zone Initiative.

"The impact is large and benefits all.   Now the population has clinical laboratory services for the diagnosis of prevalent diseases," said Dr. Manual Gonzalez, Director of the Capitan Bado Health Center. "

"Two years ago we had an outbreak of dengue in the city, and it was totally difficult to control fever without the possibility of clinical analysis," recounted Dr. Gonzalez, remembering those days.

The laboratory expanded its infrastructure with the support from the Municipality of Capitan Bado, under the leadership of Mayor Roberto Gonzalez, who made the long trip to Asunción to receive the donation of equipment from the United States Ambassador, James Thessin.

 “This is a dream come true that we did not dare to believe in at the beginning when the USAID/Iniciativa Zona Norte’s people told us that they could help us in a project that benefits our community,” said Mr. Gonzalez. “Now the people will have access to proper health care; we are thankful to USAID.”

The equipment is intended to strengthen the clinical laboratories and health centers in the municipalities of Chore (San Pedro) and Capitán Bado (Amambay). Similarly, equipment will benefit the communities of San Vicente (municipality of General Resquin, San Pedro) and Curuguaty (Canindeyú).

The total value of the donation was U$ 1,000,000. The donation is made under the framework of the Northern Zone Initiative, which aims to improve income, access to employment and services that rural people receive from their municipalities, to improve the quality of life for inhabitants of the northern departments, specifically San Pedro, Concepción, Amambay and Canindeyú.

Asuncion, February 14, 2012