On December 26, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The Vitebsk Regional Endocrinology Dispensary has received medical equipment under a grant from the Government of Japan. The official handover ceremony of the equipment was held today with the participation of Vladimir Terentyev, Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, and Mimori Shigehiro, Chargé d'affaires ad interim of Japan to the Republic of Belarus, BELTA correspondent reports. The dispensary received an ultrasound diagnostic system that allows visualization of any thyroid pathology, examination of its blood circulation, and consequently, early detection of diseases, including oncological ones. There was no similar device in the Vitebsk region. The cost of the Prosound Alpha 6 system manufactured in Japan is $85.5 thousand. The Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee expressed sincere gratitude to the Japanese government and people for the assistance provided and recalled that after the Chernobyl NPP accident, Japan was one of the first to offer help to Belarus. Mimori Shigehiro stated that the Embassy of Japan in Belarus implements the government's "Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects" program. Since the program's inception in 2004, over $2 million has been allocated to hospitals located in territories affected by the Chernobyl NPP accident, as well as to specialized medical institutions. Twenty-five contracts for equipment supply have been signed, of which 19 have been completed, and another 7 are in progress. The project with the Vitebsk Regional Endocrinology Dispensary is now among the completed ones. The Chargé d'affaires ad interim also expressed sincere gratitude to the Belarusian people and leadership for the assistance provided to his country after the devastating earthquake of 2011 and the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. According to the dispensary, in the Vitebsk region, over 40,000 patients with thyroid pathology are under dispensary observation by endocrinologists. Annually, about 130 patients are diagnosed with thyroid cancer for the first time in the region. -0-

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