The project to provide a medical team to facilitate the establishment of an organized system for earlier detection and treatment of thyroid diseases in Belarus

Full text: The Kyushu Assistance Movement to Chernobyl is a Japanese NGO to send humanitarian support to people affected by the 1986 Chernobyl accident. We have been providing a medical team to facilitate the establishment of an organized system for earlier detection and treatment of thyroid diseases in the Stolin region and in Brest town, Brest Region in Belarus. The Belarus Red Cross gives us its total support in the administration procedures necessary for acceptance of our medical team, our medical supplies and support for both the affected people and the medical facilities. Exchange programs have been held and concrete cooperation geared towards sharing medical information and techniques have been carried out between a Post-Graduate Medical Academy in Belarus and some Japanese specialists. The group of doctors who are our partners in Brest Region also belong to the staff of the International Red Cross's mobile medical examination project that travels through contaminated areas. Their all year long preliminary mass-screening for thyroid diseases all over Brest Region is a great help to making our project more effective. The Biopsy system is extremely effective if not essential for detection of thyroid cancer in its early stages. Experienced Belarussian doctors who have participated in our project for several years have started to transfer biopsy technology to other local doctors. It now seems quite possible that in the near future Belarussian doctors will be able to detect and treat thyroid cancer in its early stages by themselves. A presentation will be made of the activities, achievements and prospects of the project to provide a medical team to facilitate the establishment of an organized system for earlier detection and treatment of thyroid diseases in Belarus