User:Marcus17620/Jaime Bayona

= Jaime Bayona =

Background
Jaime Bayona is a talented physician who focuses on public health and he has grown to become one of the best-known specialists in studying the epidemiology of Tuberculosis. He is also well known for his case studies on HIV/AIDS in Peru, and in other developing countries. Dr. Bayona has also done work on how public health systems should improve, in terms of providing the best approach to help the sick that cannot afford health care.

Jaime Bayona's Involvement in Peru
In 1994, Dr. Bayona was recruited in Peru to become the director of Socios En Salud (SES); a sister organization of Partners in Health that started in Lima, Peru, with the goal to treat Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in patients, and to provide health care to the poor who live in extreme resource scarce environments. Once Dr. Bayona became the director of Socios En Salud, he had to manage a large group of 150 and growing staff of community health workers along with keeping up to date with NIH grants (National Institutes of Health).

Demonstrating MDR-TB Efforts are Cost-effective and Successful in Peru
Dr. Bayona, with Dr. Kim and Dr. Paul Farmer, worked on expanding MDR-TB treatment in Peru but where threatened by the Peruvian government to stop or be kicked out of the country. Therefore it was important to build a strong relationship with the Peruvian government if they were going to treat MDR-TB patients against government policy. However, community health workers under Dr. Bayona continued to observe their patients regardless of the Peruvian government’s warning. The community health workers gave emotional support and made sure that the patients were taking their medications. Community health workers also noted any side-effects the patients had in order to make the appropriate accommodations to patient's dosages and kept patients on medications for longer periods if necessary. Fifty patients were cured because of community health workers under Bayona’s supervision. This cure rate was higher than 80 percent which is better than several highly prestigious hospitals in America. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bayona, Dr. Kim, and Dr. Paul Farmer, the Peruvian government, along with the World Health Organization, changed their minds on the usage of these medications for MDR-TB and reformed their policies.

In 1996, Dr. Bayona tried to get help from the Ministry of Health of Peru (MINSA) to provide second-line drugs for a group of ten patients in order to treat MDR-TB. However, Bayona was denied because the Ministry of Health of Peru believed that instead of treating the disease, it should instead be prevented. MINSA is an entity of the Peruvian government which was not convinced by Dr. Bayona. Money was a problem that made it difficult to receive second-line drugs. Therefore, strategies for prevention of MDR-TB was a better alternative according to the Ministry of Health of Peru. Farmer, Kim, and Bayona campaigned for second-line prescriptions through the course of a few gatherings they orchestrated with MINSA (Ministry of Health of Peru) and Suarez, who is a physician and the director of the National TB Program (NTP). Suarez was against treating MDR-TB patients due to the high costs and high chances of possible treatment failure. Dr. Bayona then traveled to the Northern Cones Hospital in 1996 to introduce himself to Felix Alcantara. Dr. Alcantara is a Pulmonologist at Northern Cones Hospital and was on board to help with tuberculosis treatments because according to him, the National Program for Tuberculosis treatments were not working. According to Dr. Kim, "Jaime was absolutely committed to these patients-- to make sure these patients would get on treatment, and he was navigating tricky political waters". Dr. Bayona was determined to convince MINSA to change their approach and try bringing together other organizational entities to collaborate. Again in 1996, Bayona organized a gathering with Suarez, Alcantara, and a couple of others from the local medical clinic in Peru. For the very first time an agreement was finalized between Socios En Salud (SES), the Peruvian National TB Program (NTP), and Partners in Health which took into account treatment of 10 MDR-TB patients to begin their work. Treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis relies on the development of the drug susceptibility. Dr. Bayona eventually received the okay for Socios En Salud to gain access to two adjoining zones that the Northern Cone Hospital supported. Permission was also given to treat more individuals within these two zones.