health

More doctors in Ngöbe Buglé area

BORIS GÓMEZ/ESPECIAL PARA LA PRENSA

homecoming:After studying abraod, two Ngöbe Buglé residents recently returned to practice medicine in the Comarca.1051205

Less than a year ago, Rufino Bejerano and Rosalba Flores could only read about a deadly respiratory illness that swept through villages in the Comarca Ngöbe Buglé, killing 41 people.

The two men, who are from the Comarca, graduated from medical school in Cuba and, in 2007, were enrolled in residency programs at various hospitals around the country.

Now they have returned to their native region to practice medicine. These two doctors have been joined by 10 others who have been assigned to care for the Ngöbe Buglé this year. This increase in medical professionals is expected to make a drastic difference in an area where a trip to the nearest hospital usually has to be made in a helicopter.

While there are numerous problems with the country's health care system, nowhere are these problems more pronounced than in the Comarca Ngöbe Buglé. According to 2005 figures, the latest statistics available, the infant mortality rate is 84 deaths per 1,000 people, four times higher than anywhere else in the country. Half of all infants suffer from malnutrition, and the average life expectancy in the Comarca in 63, 10 years less than that of the average Panamanian.

Bejerano was one of 40 students who left the country to study abroad, 26 of whom received degrees.

“I could not return empty handed,” he said. “I had to come back to serve my people.”

Regional Health Director Guillermo Guerra said that the situation has improved in recent months with the new medical appointments. But he cited many continuing problems, such as a health clinic that remains closed because money has not been provided for necessary renovations.