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SANTA CRUZ (Bolivia), Mar 22Bolivia, thanks to Russian technology, has gained independence in the production of radiopharmaceuticals, said Hortensia Jimenez, executive director of the National Atomic Energy Agency.
«I think that this was a historical, important milestone for the country. For the first time in history, the country received sovereignty and autonomy in the production of radiopharmaceuticals,» she said.
This achievement became possible thanks to the cyclotron of the Rosatom nuclear center. Now the Latin American country has drugs for the early diagnosis of cancer.
“This gives us independence in that we can provide the entire population with tomography studies using these radiopharmaceuticals free of charge,” Jimenez added.
In Bolivia, about 19,000 cancer patients are diagnosed each year. An average of five women die of cervical cancer a day, Rosario Calle, spokesman for the La Paz Cancer Patients Association, said.
He noted that the country lacks specialists in the field of oncology. «In La Paz (the administrative capital of the country — ed.) There is only one hospital for operating on cancer patients, and more than 80 people are waiting in line.»
Callier himself lost his father in 2022, who died of Hodgkin's lymphoma. This disease is common among the male population of Bolivia.
The country has a high percentage of oncological diseases, including due to natural conditions: Bolivia is one of the highest mountainous countries in the world.
The project of the Bolivian center for nuclear research and technology is unique for the nuclear industry and has no analogues in the world: its site is the highest (four kilometers above sea level) of all where nuclear technology facilities were previously built .
The center being built by Rosatom will ensure the widespread use of nuclear and radiation technologies in agriculture, medicine, industry and other important areas of human life not only in Bolivia, but throughout the region.