Med School Minutes

Med School Minutes-Ep. 58 | Tropical Diseases Are No Longer Far Away w/ Dr. Nannan Panday-Gopisingh

• Kaushik Guha

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In this episode of Med School Minutes, we’re joined by Dr. Soenita Nannan Panday-Gopisingh, Course Director of the Tropical Medicine Program and Chief Medical Officer of one of the world’s oldest continuously operating hospitals in Suriname 🌍

Dr. Nannan Panday-Gopisingh shares her journey from medical training in the Netherlands to leading healthcare initiatives in Suriname, offering insight into tropical diseases, global health systems, and why these conditions are no longer limited to specific regions of the world 🌿

The conversation explores real-world medical training, emerging infectious diseases, and the role of tropical medicine in preparing future physicians for today’s global health challenges.

00:00 Introduction to Med School Minutes
01:27 Meet Dr. Soenita Nannan Panday-Gopisingh
03:13 From Clinical Care to Hospital Leadership
06:40 Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Suriname
11:17 Inside One of the World’s Oldest Hospitals
15:56 Modernizing Care and Neonatal Innovation
20:55 Why Suriname’s Healthcare System Stands Out
24:34 Why Tropical Medicine Matters Today
31:04 Emerging Diseases and Global Health Challenges
40:31 Closing Remarks

#MedSchoolMinutes #TropicalMedicine #GlobalHealth #InfectiousDiseases
#InternationalMedicalStudents #CaribbeanMedSchool #FutureDoctors #SJSM

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Med School Minutes Podcast, where we discuss what it takes to attend and successfully complete a medical program. This show is brought to you by St. James School of Medicine. Here is your host, Kashik Gua.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for joining us on another episode of Med School Minutes where we talk about everything MD related with the focus on international students, specifically students from the Caribbean. Today we have uh a guest, Dr. Sunita Nandan Pande. She is uh one of our tropical medicine course directors, um, and she's taken the time to chat with us a little bit about what makes Suriname tick and what makes Suriname's healthcare system so much better than comparable countries. Uh Dr. Nandan Pande is also the CMO of Slans Hospital, which happens to be one of the uh oldest hospitals in the world, starting in 1760 and still operational in some of its original buildings. So without further ado, let's welcome Dr. uh Sunita. Well, welcome Dr. Sunita. Thank you so much for taking the time uh and talking to us. Uh before we even begin, I would really like you to give us a little bit of a background about yourself. How did you uh like what your experience has been with Suriname, and uh just generally who is Dr. Sunita?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, thank you for the opportunity. And I'm Sunita Nanan Pandey Gopisin. Okay. So I'm married to a guy who's named Nanan Pandey, and first I was Gopisin. Okay, um, I'm a medical doctor. I was trained in Holland. Um my family came uh in 1981. We came back from Holland. I was a girl of 10 years old, then 11 years, and we came back from Holland to live in Suriname. After my uh formal education, I wanted to study in Holland. I wanted to be a doctor, and I knew already I wanted to be in Amsterdam, and I applied for um a uh a student place in Amsterdam. It's a numerous fixes uh study in Holland. You cannot just apply and you will be uh selected. You have to do um uh procedure, and then I uh got a letter uh uh congratulations, you're accepting. So I had to move from my family situation to um being a student in Amsterdam, Holland, and the university is called the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. There were two universities in Amsterdam, and I went to one of them. After seven years, I graduated as a doctor, medical doctor, and um I married. We got uh two boys in Holland, and my husband was also from Suriname, and we had we had the wish to move back to Suriname after our studies. Okay, and that is what we did uh in 1996. We were we came back to Suriname and I applied as a um uh family health doctor in the Slans Hospital where I work till now, and I worked there for 12 years uh on the floor as a consultation uh doctor for mothers and their babies under five years. So uh it is known as under five care. Okay. Um, but in in our hospital, we not only look at the children in that department, but also at the mothers. Okay. We also do HIV care for the HIV-positive uh mothers. We we do a lot of things on in that um department because we uh do comprehensive care. You you uh it must not be clear for anyone in the waiting room, or you are coming for HIV, or you're coming for an STI or anything. So that is what I did for more than 12 years. Then there was a um application for medical director. The hospital um didn't have a board like a board that we have now, there was only um a CEO. Okay, and the CEO covered everything, also the medical uh medical part, but together with a nursing director.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh so they thought about it and said, no, we need someone with a medical background, and they asked me to apply. Okay. Uh so there were three applicants, and after talking, and I I was always thinking about uh management and how uh we can improvise better to do things better, and especially for the mother and child care, because that is the core business of that hospital. I was always walking around with IDs, and so that is how I came in picture of the people in the in the uh upper level, in the management level. So they asked me to apply, and I did. I told them my IDs and they liked it. Okay, and uh they asked me, okay, uh, can you confirm that you will be the medical director for the coming time? I had to think very hard because uh I thought about my mothers and my babies, and uh I was like, okay, I will miss them. I I liked the the contact individual context with the people and working together in a team uh with nurses and uh uh doc uh the gynecologists, the pediatricians, you know, the whole team for taking care of uh families and their well-being, not only health, not only sickness, but the total well-being. That was my idea of uh giving care. So um I took the job that was in 2014, and until now I'm the medical director. Um, I will do that till I'm 60 years old because that is the age for um uh uh how do you call it? Um retirement. Retirement. Yes, and uh I have still uh I have achieved a lot, I think, and I've still some I have still some plans. So I'm going um I'm uh going on. Okay. And um this course came on our way uh because St. James um uh asked me to mediate for such a course, and I thought, wow, this is something great for our country. And um, but I am not um uh doctor with that much knowledge about infections, uh infectious diseases, so I asked our uh very um uh how do you call it uh uh knowledgeable doctor in Suriname, Dr. Freden, with international um uh experience and and he's known very well. He's uh he's the one who who uh uh improved the malaria care so far that we got the elimination status from WHO. So I thought, no, he is the person who can take this course on, and it would be very great for Suriname to come in the picture as a country where you can learn a lot about infectious diseases.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh diseases we don't see anymore in the world or in certain places. Uh doctors may not have heard about them or only see them in books, and they can come to Suriname and learn about them.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right, right. So this is uh really fascinating, but I do have to ask you about your decision to come back to Suriname because um one thing that really stands out to me, I've spoken to quite a few physicians across Suriname, and their conviction and passion for medicine is honestly, in my opinion, unparalleled. I've spoken to more physicians in the United States than I have almost anywhere else in the world, but I think generally, at an average, I think uh people in Suriname, the physicians who are in Suriname, despite um spending a lot of time in the Netherlands and despite having options in the Netherlands, have always chosen to come back. Um, what is the reason what was the main driving force for you to come back to Suriname?

SPEAKER_02:

First thing, the weather. Because in Holland you have harsh weather sometimes, and it's cold and you have to study, it's cold, you have to uh get warm all the time in the winter. Okay, that is one part. We love our climate in Suriname, our tropical climate.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, just to point out, like for the audience, uh Suriname consistently stays at around uh 30 to 35 Celsius, which is approximately uh 80 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year. Yes, uh the winter season tends to be hotter, hot and um rainy, rainy, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Two rainy seasons and two dry seasons, very hot seasons, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But your dry season is also not particularly dry though, because no, but last uh we in September, October, it was very hot.

SPEAKER_02:

It felt like 40 degrees Celsius.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

But no problem, we can survive that. Um better than cold. Okay, so that was one of the things, and then we have the the fact that uh most of our families are here, right? We miss the warmth of our families, uh being together. Uh and then you have the point of uh living with less stress. Um the working hours are a little bit less, you come home at three o'clock, four o'clock, maybe five o'clock, and then you still have uh time to do something else. In Holland, you you you go out in the dark in the morning and you come back in the dark in the in at four or five o'clock, and then your day is over, you are tired, you have to cook and take care of the children, and then you're done. So choosing for the quality of life, choosing for your family, choosing for your community, because if you come back with knowledge, then the impact that you make here on your community, your the population here is much bigger than when you work in that country over there where there are so many doctors, right? The healthcare is up to date, and uh you make impact, but not that much as if you come here and you work for the people who are in less better circumstances, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02:

That's the others, the other ones are okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So um I I do want to focus a little bit on your current role as CMO. Uh, you're not just the CMO of any hospital, you're the CMO of SLANs Hospital, which is one of the top, if I'm not mistaken, five oldest continuously running hospitals started originally officially in 1760, but I've also read that even before that, almost 50 years before that, it was operating as an infirmary, but unofficially. But it became a designated military hospital in 1760. So your hospital is essentially a heritage building. And how does that role really think affect your role as CMO?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, the fact that the hospital is still standing after that many years, it it says something about our quality or impact on the uh community. People have trust, people are still coming to the hospital, even though the there are bad times, even though the facilities are old or not being being updated or upgraded. So uh we have a task, we have a uh important role to play in the healthcare in Suriname. Uh and my CEO and myself and the staff, we see it as as our obligation that after us the hospital will still stand. So we are working towards that, that we leave something behind. Uh you call it a legacy, but it is for us important that we do our part, and after we are uh we after we are gone, then this hospital must still be running and be a part of be an important part of uh the healthcare in Suriname. And my role as a CMO is to see, and that is our mission and vision, is to see that we maintain that big wooden building, right? Built with bricks and uh wooden planks transported from Holland in boats to in the early 1700s, uh to maintain that building and uh that that we uh can um play our part in in the maintenance but also uh in regards to the medical care. So it should be safe, it should be hygienic, right? Uh we must not have to uh too much uh infections. So that is my part as the doctor in the board uh to um to look into that and together with our infection uh prevention uh department, that we uh see, hey, um what are the the the things we have to do to maintain that. So that is my part. My part is to guide and to organize together with the medical specialist the care to maintain the quality of care, and we're also working on uh Kiwa certification.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh what is that?

SPEAKER_02:

That is uh a kind of um uh accreditation from uh a system from Holland, okay. It's called Kiwa. Okay, and that means that we have to um uh uh comply comply to our procedures that we know our procedures, but we have to write them down now and we have to apply to them so that we can maintain our quality. We are in the middle of the process, a lot of our uh awards are already accredited, and this year we will start the uh the uh uh the audits to re uh to do the re certification. Okay, that is my part also in that with the medical staff to maintain the quality of care. So um, and that means, and you were talking about that, that I'm also one of the persons who is part of uh the building uh infrastructure infrastructure group, yeah, as part of the board, yes, and together with some of the managers and also the the people who are doing the building. We are right now in the uh phase of uh a big renovation of the wooden building, right? Because after those hundred and something years, you need to do a big maintenance renovation part. We did some small things during the years. We built also other uh facilities and upgraded other facilities around uh the wooden building, but now where the patients where the where the real care is given, that is in the patient ward, that building must be uh upgraded now. And we are in the part of that. Phase one is being delivered after uh end of November. And we are seeing the improving improvement, and it will be a very nice uh uh thing to look for. Um and and being that historical, being that um, and you know, we don't get funds for maintenance or building, so we it was our dream to do it, but we didn't have the financial means. And now with the uh arrival of the oil companies and the interest of one of them and their help in uh in the donation of the financial means for the construction and the renovation, then we can fulfill our dreams and uh look forward to a new nice, awesome, comfortable building, but with the historical outlooks. Right. And it will be part of history of Suriname.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So, you know, when I first walked into your office, I remember um seeing pictures of you and a hard hat. I've been to, I've spoken to hundreds of physicians, I've never seen a hard hat in the physician's uh office. So uh that's when I, you know, when we started talking and I uh asked you about your role, and um it seemed like you were uh almost uh like a foreman of that particular ward when the construction was happening. So I mean, really it it the the dynamism of the role that you're in is even more unique because of the uh uniqueness of the hospital that you're at.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that uh that is mainly um due to a lack of um uh capable people because we have, as we talked about, we have a lot of brain drain. People are leaving the country because of the economic situation, looking for better. You cannot hold them back. Okay, but I have no uh problems uh with fulfilling those roles because we as a board think we should have a controlling eye in these projects, right? And this particular project was about a very high-tech uh ward, and that was the neonatal high care ward with uh lots of um technical adjustments, uh uh high-tech equipment, uh CPEP and and and all kinds of stuff. Uh, so we needed someone from the board from the management side to uh follow up all the steps. And uh I as a medical director I felt obliged to play that part, and I enjoyed it very much. Um because you know you have you have you are a medical doctor and you can see certain things in the building, and you can you can apply your knowledge as uh with medical background and talk about it and do adjustments, and it was very nice working, it was very successful project, and now the ward is uh more than one year old, and we could help a lot of premature babies and and and sick babies with that particular care, um level two uh high care units. So it is very fulfilling.

SPEAKER_01:

So um if I'm Not mistaken from what you mentioned, it sounds like uh your hospital definitely certain wards are already uh at some uh European standard. Yes. Um, and I think uh you're now applying for the hospital as a whole to go through the whole process, which is pretty remarkable. Um, generally speaking, you know, we do operate in the Caribbean. I think um Caribbean medical infrastructure seems to be um in need of a lot of attention, just generally speaking. However, I think Suriname is pretty unique there in the sense that uh the the level of specialists, the level of knowledge, um, even the infrastructure, I would say is quite dramatically different from other Caribbean countries. Well, I know you guys are really South America, but you are a part of Caracok, so that's why I'm clubbing you with uh the Caribbean regions. Um, if you could give us some insight into how that came about, why that is, how has Suriname really maintained its healthcare system, as well as what makes the Suriname's healthcare system really tick.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, it is it is our uh background of uh being a Dutch colony. In the beginning, we were for a few years we were um uh a colony of the British. Okay, that is why we drive at the left side, okay, but still from that time, and then uh we have a background of more than 300 years of uh being a Dutch colony. So our um most of our systems are based on Dutch law and Dutch uh educational system, right? So that that is and after our independence in 1975, we maintained that bond with um Holland and we just built on those basic things. Um, the medical education is also based on the uh medical uh system of Holland, and if you want to be a medical specialist, you will do a big part of that specialization in Suriname itself, right? But you will go to Holland for two, three, four or more years to finish your uh specialization uh part. That's why we lean a lot on guidelines, protocols, right, and so on from Holland. Okay, but we do have doctors or specialists from other countries like Cuba, sometimes sometimes from Belgium. Okay. Uh so and it is in in this range because we are part of CARICOM, we are part of Latin America, we don't speak Spanish, um, we don't speak the kind of English that uh is spoken in Caribbean in the Caribbean part. So we are, you know, uh we are in the middle.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're you're a mosaic of cultures, which is which is a good thing, I think.

SPEAKER_02:

And uh indeed, then we have that blended mix of cultures and people from all over the world: India, China, Holland, uh, Africa, uh, Portugal, Indonesia. It is a mix of mix of people from everywhere over the world who came to Suriname in the past and stayed there, had their families, had their children. The third, fourth generation is now here in Suriname. So and uh, but after that, all that while we all feel like Surinamese people with our own identity. So that is that is also unique from Suriname. But mostly we have that thick bond with Holland. Okay, a lot of our families are also living in Holland. Okay, so that part is also those families come every year to visit Suriname. We go to Holland to visit our family there, so there is a lot of interaction with Holland.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um I know, so you you are one of the course directors for our tropical medicine program. Um, you and Dr. Frayden. Dr. Fraden has uh stepped up and is doing a lot more on the academic side. You've obviously helped us a lot with the uh framework of the overall program. Why is this program important to you?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, I think Surinam has potential to learn um the outside world what we have, what we can offer. Right. Um being a country with that lot of um forest, and our president talked about it in the UN in her UN speech, uh, about uh the impact we have being a carbon-negative country, right, and a country with that much of forest and oxygen and being some part of the lungs of the world. Uh it is it is I think we are obligated to show the world what we have.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

And um it was for me very interesting uh because we don't we have connection with the US, but more in the in the sense of uh showbiz and um you know uh uh going online to buy some stuff and then it will come through Miami to Suriname. That is something we do for years, right? But more than that, some students who go to the US to do their studies over there, but more than that, we don't we don't have that much connection with the US. So I I thought it would be a very nice uh opportunity to build that connection with uh with with on the academical level and uh uh educational level. And uh I I must be honest, I thought really about the benefits for Suriname.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

But also it benefits the students from here. They will go with their knowledge and uh talk about it, and maybe they will see a patient with these kinds of diseases and they say, Hey, I heard about it, I saw it, I uh I had a lecture about it, I know what to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, so that is that that is my motivation to uh be part of this uh program.

SPEAKER_01:

This particular course um is particularly timely because in the United States, tropical diseases, um not that they're not really taught, it's just that they're a little light on teaching, and obviously the practicum portion is very limited. So one case in point is just a few in August, I believe Chagas disease, which has been historically a tropical disease, has become endemic to the United States. Um I think last year we had a dengue outbreak in the United States. These are things that we haven't seen. No. Obviously, there are other things like measles and and and a lot of this stuff uh taking place in in the United States. And I think this sort of a training will really supplement everything that the students are already learning, which is totally geared towards the US medical system. So, in that regard, I really think that you and Dr. Freyden have opened up a fantastic opportunity for every American student or every student who wants to go to America. Because you're bringing back, you know, going back to your point that you came back to Suriname because your impact would be quite a bit more. Yes. And I think having such a niche and um expertise, this will allow our students that will come here to have that uh impact on their local communities as we see more and more tropical uh diseases become not just you know become prevalent and even endemic in in the United States. Um given you know that you obviously helped us set up this program, what is your aspiration for this particular program? What do you want it to do in the years to come?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yes. Um, you know, uh my uh main part in this whole is uh that I know a lot of people. I can bring you in contact with the the right people to set set up such a program, and I hope that I uh succeeded in that. I think so. Oh but uh what I want to what I would like to see is that it it it could be uh you know continuously programmed, maybe two, three times a year, that uh groups of students can come to SURNAM and that uh the program can be uh done in the in the part and that we can improve every time. Right. Maybe it's needed to add uh other diseases or talk about other uh factors in uh in tropical diseases care. So uh that is my uh my my uh uh insight for this. Yeah. Uh it it it it should be an ongoing thing. Okay. And I'm always talking about when I'm when I'm not around anymore, when you guys are not around. It things should be um I don't know how to say it in English. It it should be in succession. In succession. Yes. You know, it it shouldn't be um dependent on as people who are sitting here.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, and that's what we're doing. I mean, um, I don't know if you've spoken to some of the students that we have. They've gone to the interior, they've been very intrigued by it. Now they want to go deeper into the interior where they don't necessarily have regular electricity and definitely no internet. Um and and I know when we first visited, you and Dr. Frieden wanted to take them there, but we were like, no, no, you know, we want our students to be at the very minimum somewhere close to some sort of uh settlements. Yeah. But uh I think some of the students that have come here are so impressed by everything that they've seen that they want to go further into the Amazon jungle. And I think that that's uh that speaks highly of our students, but it also speaks highly of the country of Suriname and the healthcare that they've seen, that they want to learn more. So that's we're very impressed with that. Um, generally speaking, I do want to uh ask you um about how tropical medicine fits into your day-to-day uh activities as a CMO. I know you mentioned a lot about your infectious disease ward and things like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Now uh I I don't have a uh uh happy announcement about that because we are experiencing um uh upcoming trends of STIs. And uh as I'm in the mother and child care field, we see that pregnant women are infected, and with that there is a risk of the baby being infected. So I'm uh as CMO, I am uh um uh I am I am involved. Sorry, I am involved, yeah. SCMO, I am involved in um uh projects together with PAHO uh and other uh organizations to look at this problem emerging problem uh of diseases that we didn't see the last couple of years that much. So it is like syphilis, HIV, and uh also hepatitis B, also hepatitis C. Um on the one hand, it is about awareness of the community, on the other hand, it is how we as a healthcare system react to this of these upcoming diseases. For one instance, we never as a medical doctor doctors we maybe have not seen any congenital syphilis case in our medical career. Right now we see babies born with uh with syphilis. So uh that is uh one that is how I'm uh involved in this uh uh uh yeah tropical diseases um uh part, but also we have two big departments of internal medicine, okay, and we do have patients with um sometimes rare infectious diseases, but also other um common infectious diseases. We also have um still we have imported cases of malaria. Uh we a few months ago we were uh alarm alarmed by one uh patient with um uh uh brain malaria, and that is where Dr. Freden came in with his group to check the whole uh uh uh question uh the problem because we wanted to he wanted to know where is the patient from. Uh is it is it infection in Suriname or did he import it? And that is our role also from our doctors and specialists. Uh our in we have two big internal departments. So uh we see uh we do see a lot of uh infectious diseases, so that is our part also in in uh handling and management of it.

SPEAKER_01:

You get people from everywhere coming in and you look good.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, we uh it is it is you know, we have we have a good surveillance system. Uh-huh. And that means that if we uh do see some rare thing or rare disease or something that has to be reported to the authorities, medical authorities, we have those systems in place. Okay, and then we uh alarm everybody, hey, we have something like this, you know, and then even the PAHO comes uh uh uh looking so for hey, what what is the matter? I just had a meeting with the PAHO about these uh STIs, emergent STIs, and uh we are looking for a plan of action together with the ministry. How can we attack uh this this problem to uh minimize uh all these infections and and to make the community also aware, but also train again doctors and midwives and other healthcare workers to be alert, right? And that is our impact.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um, you know, I I do have one final question, and I I really would like you to explain the role of PAHO and what PAHO is, because I know a lot of uh our viewers probably don't know. It's the uh Pan-American Health Organization, which is a part of the World Health Organization. Um, how does PAHO affect your healthcare system and what really is the relationship?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, the PAHO PAHO works with governments. They are uh PAHO is Pan American, so all the Americas, including US. US is also part of the PAHO. Oh, okay. Uh and um WHO, okay, this is the part of uh PAHO is part of WHO. They work with governments to support with technical advices, uh sometimes uh financial um support for workshops, trainings, bringing in technical uh uh uh persons. Like for instance, we have um we have now the immunization program, and we would like to know how to improve the program. Then they will bring in someone who knows everything about immunization, vaccinations, vaccines, everything. We do a workshop on that. They will um support with with with uh the financial means for that. We don't have to pay for that. Okay, but it goes through the Ministry of Health, it goes to the government.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Then the government will ask Slans Hospital, hey, you are mother and child care specialist uh hospital. Right. Uh, how do you see this problem? Can you uh talk to Pajo about this? Uh give your input, what should be done? Uh, how could how can they help? Right. So that is the part of PAHO, technical and sometimes financial support. Okay. Mainly with uh technical persons, working groups to give advice and to look at problems and creating a plan of action.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Okay. And um this is a little bit of a political question. Um, good thing it's at the end of the recording. We can cut it out if uh Dan and our producers think so. Has the aid cut to the World Health Organization affected PAHO in any way and in turn affected Suriname in any way?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, yes. When uh the the first um uh messages came in that uh there was a cut, uh Paho here in Suriname sent out uh an email. We have to uh inform you that uh the financial means are less. We don't know what will happen. Uh but please um take uh in consideration that our financial help will not be that big. Uh in the end, it it it it is not that big uh because we can do our uh annual, we have a two-annual uh program agenda with uh PAHO uh and that was not cut. So I think the financial means are reserved, so that is a good thing. Was also here in Suriname, and they um had a lot of problems with the cut. So uh USAID is is out of picture, I think now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they don't exist anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

They don't exist anymore, and that is really um a pity. But yes, we we we we don't have we we as a country we we we cannot do anything about that. But the the cooperation with PAHO is still going to go.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And uh I know that USA has pulled out of the membership of the WHO. I think it's going to go into effect in 26. They've officially given their notice and whatnot. Do you anticipate anything adverse happening at that point to PAHO or I think uh USAID had a role in our HIV medication? Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So maybe there will be some impact there, but there are other funds that we can use. And I think um the ministry and uh organizations are looking in that to have uh another means of funding our HIV medication.

SPEAKER_01:

So it almost sounds like it's business as usual for it. Just that you know USA was funding some things, but now that they're not, you just found somebody else or some we can other we can find other funds.

SPEAKER_02:

You also have the UNDP, you have uh uh UNICEF, and um uh they also have their uh two-year uh uh programs. So there are there are uh two-year programs running, and I I didn't hear about parts being cut. So I have good hope that it will stay there.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you so much, uh Dr. Sunita, for um your time. And thank you so much for introducing our students um to the amazing systems in Suriname, and we're hoping that this is um going to keep continuing for a long time to come and our students really learn. I mean, I can tell you for our first group of students, uh, they're so excited and they're so enthusiastic about everything that they've seen that they really uh that they're hoping that their fellow students get the opportunity to get exposed to some of the vital information and how Suriname in relatively resource-limited uh fashion has created a world-class health system.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much for tuning into our show. We hope you enjoyed another episode of Med School Minutes. If you like our content, please follow us and receive notification when a new show is posted. This podcast is brought to you by St. James School of Medicine. For a video version of this podcast, please check us out on sjsm.orgslash video.