September 27, 1999
The seventh annual Physicians With Heart project is bringing pharmaceutical and other medical supplies worth about $5.2 million in U.S. wholesale dollars to Uzbekistan.
This morning, 11 family physicians and 19 other delegation members arrived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital, where they were met by three staff members of Heart to Heart International. The delegation will monitor the arrival of the supplies this afternoon. Later this week, the delegation will share medical information with Uzbek health care providers about family practice and update them on use of the donated medicine.
"This is the second largest shipment of aid sent to Uzbekistan since it became an independent republic," said family physician Gary Morsch, M.D., of Olathe, Kan., founder and president of Heart to Heart International. "The State Department says only a shipment from our government's Operation Provide Hope was larger."
The Academy and the AAFP Foundation are copartners with Heart to Heart International in the annual airlift. Uzbekistan has received two smaller Physicians With Heart shipments, one in December 1998 worth more than $1.3 million and one in July worth about $1.6 million, for a total of about $8.1 million.
"I'm not aware of any humanitarian group besides Heart to Heart that does so much advance logistical work to see exactly what drugs are needed at what hospitals," said AAFP Director Daniel Van Durme, M.D., of Tampa, Fla. He is participating in the airlift for the third straight year.
Logistics include obtaining assurances from local officials that all the drugs in the airlift will be able to be used in plenty of time before their expiration dates.
The project also has ripple effects pertaining to more than the donated supplies. "After we leave the country, the 'people connections' continue," said Van Durme. "I still e-mail with the people I met in Siberia last year. The world is shrinking."
