Location: National US Arab
Chamber of Commerce. (Conference Room) 1023 15th St. NW 4th Floor (between
L & K Streets) Washington DC 20005
The two major pediatric oncology
centers in Morocco are Service d'Hémato-oncologie
Pédiatrique de l'Hôpital 20 Aôut 1953 in Casablanca and Unité d'Hémato-oncologie
Pédiatrique, Hôpital d'Enfants de Rabat in Rabat, located about 60
miles apart. There is a considerable
degree of cooperation between the two centers and both have well developed,
committed fund raising organizations, L'Avenir in Rabat with the Princesse
Lalla Meryem as the honorary president and AGIR in Casablanca. Professor Fouzia Alaoui, the chief of service of the pediatric
hematology/oncology service in Rabat, is the president of L'Avenir.
Dr. Alaoui visited St. Jude as a visiting fellow and is intensely committed
to the program. Professor Mhamed Harif is the second in command of the oncology
service in Casablanca. Dr. Harif
visited St. Jude on two occasions as a visiting fellow and works tirelessly
for his program. Resources in
both cities include the fund raising organizations, Ronald
McDonald equivalent houses for parents and patients, established oncology
programs with some trained physicians and existing, although somewhat primitive
by our standards, hospitals with infrastructures of pediatric care.
Through their partnership
with International Outreach, the programs in Morocco plan to further improve
staff training for their pediatric hematology/oncology units with a special
emphasis on raising the quality of treatment in the region of children with
solid tumors and the development of a cancer registry.
St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital, located in Memphis, Tennessee, is one of the world's premier centers
for research and treatment of catastrophic diseases in children, primarily
pediatric cancers. Friends of Morocco have supported the programs in Rabat
and Casablanca.
UPDATE
A
new protocol is being planned to improve the treatment of acute myleocytic
leukemia (AML) in both children and adults. At present, most of these patients
in Morocco die. It should be
possible to cure 40-50% of them. Because this is a protocol, it will be possible
to plan the need for medications and order at least 6 months ahead of time.
Also, since it is a protocol, we feel some obligation to ensure that patients
will be able to get medications. Although St. Jude Outreach Program is not
able to pay for medications, but has offered to help facilitate finding the
lowest prices for medications by going through the World Health Organization
and other NGO's.
Providing
medications for this limited number of patients (30-40 per year) might be
a project of interest to the Friends of Morocco. This effort is particularly
valuable if the project is not just to provide medications for AML treatment
but to help develop a system for the purchase of quality medications that
could impact on medical care throughout Morocco.
Also,
on a smaller scale, a small research project that involved recording patient/parent
views on pain. These are in Moroccan dialectical Arabic and will be translated
but the translations need to be validated by someone fluent in Moroccan Arabic.
If anyone is interested, they could contact Ruth
Ann Skaff.
RSVP to Ruth
Ann Skaff 202/234-1743 ruthannskaff@starpower.net
or Tim
Resch, President C 703 470 3166
W 202 712 4453
Friends of Morocco tresch@att.net
http://www.friendsofmorocco.org
