Bolivian President inaugurates nuclear medicine center

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, inaugurated on Sunday, March 6, the first nuclear medicine and radiotherapy center so that Bolivians can treat diseases such as cancer in the country and do not have to go to neighboring countries for treatment.

The center is located in El Alto, which celebrated its 37th anniversary on the same day. President Arce was accompanied by Vice President David Choquehuanca and other ministers.

“With this center, there will no longer be a need for us to go to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, or other countries for treatment,” said Arce in his inauguration speech.

Arce highlighted that Bolivia is taking a “qualitative leap” because of this center’s technology to treat cancer.

The Bolivian president suffered from cancer in 2017 and had to go to Brazil for his treatment.

“The technology we are inaugurating here, in one of the world’s highest cities, is the best technology in South American countries,” Arce said.

The president also emphasized that this center is part of a “network” and that a similar one will be built in the eastern city of Santa Cruz.

This center has high-tech tomographs that use nuclear energy to detect cancer through images accurately; it also has two linear accelerators, a brachytherapy area, a chemotherapy area, a simulation tomography, and a pharmacy, according to data from the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) cited by the Ministry of Health.

This center, located in the Parcopata neighborhood in El Alto, will have the capacity to treat 120 cancer patients per day and is estimated to provide at least 36,000 treatments per year, with an investment of US$49.1 million.

The Argentine state-owned INVAP was awarded in 2017 the construction of three nuclear medicine centers in the Bolivian cities of La Paz, El Alto, and Santa Cruz, with an investment of about US$165 million.

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