Carabayllo: Lima, Peru

A Peruvian doctor examines a patient.

Socios en Salud

Like Zanmi Lasante, Socios en Salud is based on PIH's signature community-based treatment program. Established in the shantytowns around Lima in 1994, Socios en Salud now serves 700,000 patients, many of them refugees of political violence or poverty. Socios en Salud has worked closely with Peru's Ministry of Health to create and sustain programs for the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. The organization's community-based treatment program has also been applied by the Ministry of Health to hospitals across Peru.

The Salud Infantil ("Child Health") program helps ensure the health of young children by offering checkups at community clinics. As part of PIH's mission to provide basic needs to all people, Socios en Salud gives transportation, food, and lodging based on the need of a patient.

Some recent improvements at Socios en Salud include heightened treatment of drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis and expanded HIV/AIDS care. Almost five hundred patients were completely cured of MDR in Lima last year (2007), and another five hundred are currently undergoing treatment. The National Tuberculosis Program, which works alongside Socios en Salud, has also begun to use the PIH Electronic Medical Records System to follow the treatment of MDR patients. This will aid in ensuring the health of patients in the future. Socios en Salud has also collaborated with Zanmi Lasante in Haiti to train Peruvian healthcare professionals, so that they can continue Socios en Salud's work in Peru.