As of tomorrow, Comfama, Medellín’s Mayoralty and the Governorship of Antioquia are a partnership in the quest to provide healthcare services in Antioquia to 1’650,000 members of the subsidized system.
74 percent of the shares of the mixed EPS (Healthcare Promoting Entity, for its Spanish acronym) belong the State while Comfama owns the remaining 26 percent.
A conviction against a surgeon and a bacteriologist, found responsible for the death of a woman following a gluteoplasty in 2006, was upheld this week but this case is far from isolated. This year, Antioquia’s Health Department has received at least 20 formal complaints about irregularities in plastic surgery clinics and the questionable competence of their staffs.
In Medellín, ten women have died between 2008 and 2011 as a consequence of poorly performed plastic surgeries. Health authorities are urging people to conduct careful research before putting themselves in the hands of clinics and their surgeons, because in many cases these establishments are allowed to remain open during appeal processes.
Thirty beauty salons did not pass inspection by Medellín’s Public Health Department and while the red stickers that identify them aren’t necessarily permanent, they do mean that significant changes must be made before conditions are deemed safe for customers.
For this year, the Health Department has 5,400 inspections plans; 933 salons have already been inspected, of which 202 met all requirements, and 701 had violations that must be corrected but are not a health hazard to customers.
In an effort to provide the right care in each circumstance, Las Américas Hospital opened new, separate urgent care and emergency care units. Each unit has its own entrance on 70th Avenue in Tower 4. More than 100 additional beds will help the hospital expand its ability to care for patients.
“Emergencies are situations in which a patient’s life is at stake or there is an imminent risk of a worsening condition and they must be tended to immediately,” said Dr. Javier Orozco. Urgent care, on the other hand, is for conditions in which prompt attention is required but the patient’s life is not in jeopardy.
The World Health Organization (WHO) just confirmed what the scientific community had been claiming for quite some time: diesel fumes cause cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported findings that prove a connection between lung cancer and exhaust from diesel engines; the study also revealed a ‘positive association’ between these fumes and bladder cancer..
According to IARC study leader, Dr. Christopher Portier, the experts’ decision to shift the exhaust fumes from ‘probable carcinogen’ to ‘carcinogen’ was unanimous. “Given the additional health impacts from diesel particulates, exposure to this mixture of chemicals should be reduced worldwide,” he said.
Experts say the announcement should raise awareness but not cause panic.
As many as 160,000 people in Colombia could be HIV positive and not even know it, according to a study by the United Nations Program on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS). The program’s national coordinator, César Núñez, said this is due to the fact that there is lack of awareness about condom use and many don’t feel personal concern over the chance of being infected. Symptoms can appear as late as five to ten years after infection, and Colombians tend to seek treatment only when their health starts to show signs of deterioration.
“The difference between those infected that we know of and the ones we don’t know of is that the latter haven’t been tested, usually because they don’t feel it’s something that they could have.” Núñez urged Colombians to reconsider their attitude towards the use of condoms because 98 percent of the HIV positive cases in Colombia are a result of unsafe sex.
A total of 5,650 people died of AIDS last year and experts believe this rate could be considerably lower if the disease is diagnosed sooner.
While they agree that the issue isn’t urgent and both recommend staying calm, plastic surgeons and mastologists differ in their views on how to proceed regarding controversial PIP implants.
The Colombian Association of Mastology recommends having PIP implants removed, whether they have ruptured or not, while the Colombian Association of Plastic Surgery only suggests replacing the ones that rupture, but “we don’t feel it’s prudent to wait for them to break”.
Although the World Health Organization increased the level of alert, there haven’t been any confirmed cases of swine flu in the country so sanitation authorities are asking Colombians to remain calm. However, the National Government has declared an emergency situation which makes it easier to take preventive measures.
More control is being exercised in the country’s ports of entry, but authorities say there is no need to lock ourselves up just yet. Anyone who has visited the countries where cases have been reported should pay special attention should they present symptoms like cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and a high persistent fever.
Between 2006 and 2007, 869 people have died while in the process of being remitted to specialized care units. This year, 14,000 patients were transferred by Metrosalud to Antioquia’s Regional Health Office to be treated at levels 1, 2 and 3.
Although there is no knowledge of the kind of service they received, 15,973 ‘tutelas’(writ for protection of constitutional rights) filed by the users of healthcare services indicate that timely service is lacking.
