Humanitarian Assistance Medicine Elective

Leading the way toward increasing operational and humanitarian training, the NCC Pediatric Residency has established a partnership with the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM) based at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS). The focus of this relationship is to assist CDHAM in partnering with the military of Honduras to develop and establish comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention programs within the Honduran military to include dependent family members.

During its initial visit in September 2006 and two subsequent visits, most recently in May 2007, NCC team members met with officials from civil, military, and international organizations engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Honduras. The goal of these efforts was to identify potential areas for collaboration and coordination of future prevention efforts.

As this project moves forward, future teams from the NCC Pediatric Residency will participate in quarterly missions initially focused on the demographic assessment of children and pregnant women presenting for care and also assessing perceptual obstacles to the delivery of care.  Areas that will also be of particular interest and attention include expanding the nutritional and breastfeeding support for infants born to HIV-positive mothers and current counseling services. As part of this partnership, professional exchange with both civil and military populations will be critical to the ongoing success of this project.

For additional information about Honduras and particularly the situation with HIV/AIDS that it faces, please follow the links below. To learn more about the NCC Humanitarian Assistance elective, please contact the Program Director.