An American medical delegation came to Yemen to attend the Yemeni-American conference which took place on May 21, 1999 in the capital city of Sana'a. This delegation came to help the Yemeni positions. The delegation consisted of many specialists and surgeons who worked with the Yemeni doctors doing some surgical operations at Althawra hospital. Mohammed Bin Sallam of Yemen Times has conducted an interview with some members of the medical group and participants. 
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Q: Could you please introduce yourself to the readers? 
A: I am Charles H. Rosenfarb, Regional Medical Officer. My position is here in the Embassy of the United States in Sana'a. 

Q: What is your impressions about this conference? 
A: I love Yemen. I have been fifteen month here, I am very happy and enjoy to know the position here in different hospitals and to know many Yemeni people. So, I have good impressions about Yemen. The conference is being a great opportunity to bring American positions here to interact with Yemeni positions. It is being trained now a lot of good lectures. We have a lot of medical students who ask many medical questions about the Yemeni positions to interact with the American doctors, and I think that they are working together to come up with some solutions to help problems here in Yemen. 

Q: How did you organize this conference? 
A: Well, it was an idea which started last spring after seeing the Yemeni-German medical conference, and I had spoke with doctor Abdulnaseer Monabary. We both have an idea to put an American equivalence here. We have organized a committee of which Dr. Monabary and myself were a co-chairmen, working very hard to make this conference successful. 

Q: What are the subjects which being discussed in this conference? 
A: This is being a general medical conference. We try to include something for everyone. The major topics we spoke on were life diseases, medical education and heart disease. 

Q: What is the benefit of this conference? 
A: The major benefit in bringing some American professionals with the Yemeni professional positions, and hopefully they will have lasting relationships to be a continuous bridge between Yemen and America to improve health care here, and to educate knowledge and skills of some good Yemeni positions. 

Q: How can you evaluate the results of this conference? 
A: After the conference, we are trying to come up with a list of recommendations that we can give to the Ministry of Health. Ideas which come from American and Yemeni speakers after a discussions of the conference. I hope that a lot of recommendations will come to place. 

Q: How can Yemen get the advantage of this conference? 
A: It can get it through the sharing of knowledge information with American experts, I think Yemeni positions have improved a lot. Once you teach a doctor something, the doctor can make all his patients better. 

Q: Any last comments? 
A: I am very happy to work with my Yemeni friends to organize this conference. It was a hard work, but it means a pleasure for me. I impressed by the interests of the Yemeni doctors and the medical students. 
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Q: Could you kindly please introduce yourself to our readers? 
A: Yes, I am doctor George M. Abouna I came from United States. Was invited to the conference by the organizers of the American Embassy. 

Q: What is your impressions about this conference? 
A: This is my first visit to Yemen. It is an excellent idea to have a conference here and to see experts from U.S and Canada participate and give their experience to the medical professions and the Ministry of Health in Yemen. So, Yemenis can get benefit from their experience. I have three lectures here. One of the organ transplantation, the second one is medical education and the third one is of the use of artificial level. Conference is being well organized and it will help Yemeni doctors and the Ministry of Health to improve health care. 

Q: How do you evaluate the results of the conference? 
A: After a period of time, we will see what effect of the type of presentation was given the lectures and how doctors from Yemen benefited it. 

Q: How can Yemen get the advantage of this conference? 
A: I think it can get the benefit by the doctors who attended on the conference and contacted with professional here to get their experience and I think there will be conferences here by the Ministry of Health to attend to provide services for patients in the Yemeni hospitals and train the doctors there. So, a conference by itself will not serve any purpose unless the experts must be brought to work with the Yemeni doctors and help them developing new techniques and procedures. I am sure that Minister of Health Dr. Nasheir is very aware and concern about improving health care. 

Q:Would you like to add somthing? 
A: I think that the impression is excellent. The experts from abroad, who invited to attend this conference came to train Yemeni doctors. This conference should be repeated by cooperation with Embassies as U.S and Canadian. 

Q: Can you please introduce yourself to the readers, and give us some clarification about this conference? 
A: I am Dr. Abdulhakeem Al-Nadari, specialist in blood disease. As you know that the medical sciences is being developed by the passing of the time. Conferences like this give benefit to Yemeni doctors and help of transmitting information and experiences between countries. 

Q: How did you see the subjects being discussed in the conference? 
A: A lot of things were discussed as the epidemic diseases, pulmonary, organic diseases and cardiology. Today there was a report that Dr. Ba Mashmoos will be the representative in Italy in order to contact with foreign doctors. 

Q: How do you evaluate this conference? 
A: The conference was well organized, a number of problems were solved. Yemeni doctors got experience through this conference because the conference discussed many of the medical subjects. The results were very good. I hope to see many conferences like this one. 

Q: Could you give us something about yourself? 
A: Yes, my name is Anya Simeonova, I am from Bulgaria. I have been working in Althawra hospital for five years. A lot of subjects were discussed, but the conference concentrated on the medical and surgical subjects. I was involved in the cardiac team, so I could not join all conference. 

Q: How do you evaluate it? 
A: I think it is great because Yemen and A: America have a great relation. I am glade to see this conference and to be invited. 

Q: Do you see any benefit of this conference? 
A: I think that there are a lot of benefits because Yemeni doctors can learn and get experience from the American experts. They can exchange skills with the American professionals. I wish to see more conferences like this, and I want to see good development in Yemeni-American relationship. 
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Dr. Abdulla Abdulwali Nasher, Minister of Health. 
"I would like to thank our college who came from Italy to help Yemeni children in cardiology and surgery. Of course, the Yemeni Italian relationship in medicine is not one or two weeks old, it is fifty years old. Italian positions used to come to Yemen as far as 1940s and 50s and the Ammam Ahmed traveled to Italy to seek medical treatment. That show how strong are the links and how deep in history relations between both, Italian and Yemen. We are glade in our colleges who came to Yemen for the first time. They have done a great job, and we hope that they come again and again to support such missions. The Italian took Yemeni children to Italy for cardiac surgery. I hope to see them again in Yemen and if there is anything we can do, we will not hesitate to do it to facilitate the mission of the delegation. I am sure that the benefit is great." 

Q: How can you evaluate the cooperation between Yemen and Italy? 
A: There is a cooperation in many fields but the medical cooperation between Italy and Yemen mostly either personal or through non-governmental organizations and through the other medical organizations. I am very glade to see our Italian friends came to Yemen. I hope that this project will start very soon and here in Yemen it will be represented by Dr. Abdulnaser Al-Monabary, general director of Althawra hospital, and Dr. Mohammed Ba Mashmoos will be our man in Italy. we are grateful to him because he brought the Italisn team. 

Q: What is the benefit of the first Yemeni-Italian conference? 
A: As all know that Yemen is a poor country and under-developing country. We always welcome any support on the medical and health care from Italy, America, United Kingdom and other countries to gain some benefit. This benefit is shared by the medical students and the young positions. The Yemeni-American conference was successful as some of the Italian doctors have seen patients. On the whole, we try our best to benefit as much as we can from any visitor. 

Q: Could you please introduce yourself to the readers? 
A: I am Dr. Ali Al-Rabo'ei, the Advisor of Heart Surgery in Switzerland. 

Q: What is roles on this conference? 
A: Every Yemeni knows that since 1990 I have tried to establish the National Center of Cardiology. As I came to Yemen, I contact with officials and Ministers with the collaboration of Dr. Nasher, the Minister of Health and Dr. Monabary. We could profound a cardiac center at Althawra hospital. It will be completed be the end of upcoming six months as we heard from the reliable official resources. This center has special budget. All the medical instruments are available. This means that the center will be successful. Regarding the delegation, it was excellent. We appreciate the work of Dr. Ba Mashmoos who brought this delegation. A number of open surgical operations were successfully done by the collaboration between Italian delegation and Yemeni doctors. 

Q: How about the Yemeni-American conference? 
A: The conference gave the opportunity to the Yemeni medical students to recognize all the new things because it is difficult for Yemeni doctors to travel abroad. I presented a paper concerning the surgery of heart disease. It was appreciated by all. This means that we can do heart operations here in Yemen instead of traveling abroad. 

Q: Did you decide to stay in Yemen or to travel again? 
A: I come from Switzerland for a mission, which is to founding Cardiology Center and I we finish this work, I will come back to Swiss. 
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Dr. Ba Mashmoos, the organizer of this conference and the medical representative of Yemen in Italy. 

Q: Dr. Ba Mashmoos, could you please enlighten on the development in the relationship between Yemen and Italy? 
A: Italy has a great relation with Yemen. Italian experts are available in Yemen. They have many medical centers in Yemen as those in Taiz, Aden, Lahij and others. They are here to help Yemen to get over its medical problems. They only want to see action, and to contribute in many projects. As I went to the High Italian Institute to show them the problems of Yemen in the field of health, they responded to this matter. The High Italian Institute has a school which is called International Heart School. This school awards fifteen scholarships every year to the students who come to get their Master's Degrees. It is difficult to say whether they would give earmark one scholarship to a Yemeni student because they want to choose the best students of the world. I discussed with them about the need of Yemen to the medical services; They warmly interacted with me and have awarded two scholarships to us. They affirmed that they will help us in the future; They willing to come to Yemen as volunteers. This delegation has come to teach Yemeni doctors and to offer new mechanisms in the field of health care. Ministry of Health has to encourage these activities, and give the opportunity to the Yemeni doctors who are able to interact with the foreign experts. At the end of the conference, we feel that the Minister on Health and the other officials will have the desire to work together and to develop Health care in Yemen. 

Q: What are the problems that faced Italian experts here in Yemen? 
A: Frankly, I do not feel that there is any difficulty or problems. So, the things which are available are easy to be implemented, while the things which are not here are difficult to be achieved. We just have to work hard, and there will not be any problem. Dr. Abdulnaser Menabary encouraged me to contact with the Italians to organize a conference. I brought the best Italian experts. They have valuable experience as they have also gone to Albania and Kosofa. 

Q: What are the things which must be ensured by the Yemeni officials ? 
A: As I said before we need cooperation from Yemeni doctors and the Ministry of Health. We need a collective work from all. 
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Dr. Abdulnaser Monabary, Director of Althawra Hospital. 

Q: Dr. Abdunaser, can you give us some clarification about this conference ? 
A: The idea of this conference was mooted on May 21, 1999 as my colleagues met an American expert at the Embassy of the United States in Sana'a, who suggested the idea of this conference. Then, we contacted a number of American professionals of the American universities. The preparation took five months. We contacted American experts through electronic mail, and delivered the agenda of the conference to the newspapers through the electronic mail. The faculty of medicine of Sana'a university played an important role in preparation for this conference, thanks to the collaboration of Ahmed Al-Hadad. Regarding the recommendations of the conference, we took the recommendations of the participants from both sides, America and Yemen. We received the Italian medical delegation for the first time. We appreciate the active work of this delegation, and praise the work of Dr. Ba Mashmoos who organized this conference. He has been planning for it since along period of time and brought this medical delegation. Yemen got the advantage of this conference through contact a number of American universities to exchange experiences and skills. Yemen has begun to use the modern medical technology, and the new system which is called Interactive Medicine. 

Q: What is the importance of this delegation? 
A: This delegation came to train Yemeni professionals. The credit for it goes to Dr. Ba Mashmoos to prepare for organizing this conference. He brought the best specialists to exploit their experiences. They did many surgical operations at Althawra hospital. The contribution of this delegation will be clearly seen in the future. The Yemeni doctors will improve their medical skills as they interacted with those experts. 

Q: Is Dr. Ba Mashmoos going to be the representative of Yemen in Italy ? 
A: Yes, there is an agreement in the conference that Dr. Ba Mashmoos will be the representative in Italy to contact the foreign experts. 

First of two parts 

Dr. Yasin Al-Qubati, 
Director of the National Leprosy Elimination Programme 
Skin & Venereal Diseases Hospital, Taiz 

Prof. (Dr.) Harward Bruce Ostler was born on 6th June 1927 in Eureka. Bruce was the youngest of five sons in the family. Just after two years, on 29th October 1929, the New York stock market crashed in what so called 'The Black Tuesday'. The United States faced a very miserable time. This period was called "Great Depression". During this miserable situation, Bruce's parents got divorced. 

Bruce took all the science classes at high school. Then, he went for navy training in San Diego, California. After this, he got his BA degree at the University of Utah. Then, he entered medicine and graduated after three years. Then, he got his master degree. At that time, Bruce was just twenty five years old. Bruce had an internship for one year at the University of Iowa, a residency for three years and a six month period for research there. Finally, Bruce had achieved his cherished ambition! He became a fully qualified ophthalmologist. 
During the time of his study Bruce met a young lady called Marian and it did not take them a long time to get married. Marian was a wise and a virtuous wife. She had been his beloved, wife, and secretary. 

Bruce pursued his career as an ophthalmologist for ten years. At the same time he was teaching at the medical school of the University of Utah. He held different posts for eighteen years, the last one being the Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology in the University of California. 
He had to his credit ninety-nine publications in different medical journals. When one of his books "Disease of the External Eye and Adnexa" was released, the American Journal of Ophthalmology highly appreciated and recommend his work. 

Within a few years, Professor Bruce became the president of Proctor Foundation for Ophthalmology. He never smoked, drank alcohol or took to any stimulant like tea, coffee or cola. 
He was well known all around the country. Patients were heading for him from different states, and ophthalmologists were coming to him for training from different parts of the world like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Germany, Canada etc. Over the years he supervised approximately 130 research fellows at the Proctor Foundation. 
He traveled to many poor and developing countries like Somalia, India, Nepal, China, the Philippines, Egypt, Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru and Yemen. 

In summer 1982, I met Bruce in Mogadishu where we where attending the Leprosy Strategy Conference of WHO, Eastern Mediterranean Region. I believed that he could help the patients in Yemen. After a small chat, we planned for his first visit to the City of Light hospital which was the only organized leprosorium run by Mother Teresa. 

When Bruce along with his wife reached Sana'a, a very honorable reception was given by the Protocol of the President. Dr. Noordeen, the then Director of WHO, Geneva who was the chief guest at the Mogadishu conference, also was on a visit to the Noor City for one week. After this visit all of them collaborated and published an article about leprosy situation in Yemen in the Leprosy Review International Journal. This article drew the attention of the international non-governmental organizations to the problem of leprosy in Yemen. 

More than fifty operations were conducted at the Al-Noor City. Some major operations were conducted in different general hospitals in Taiz city. Junior ophthalmologists seized the opportunity to benefit from the extraordinary genius of Bruce. 
It was a surprise for the people of the Al-Noor City that an American refused to have coffee, tea, cola or any other stimulants but readily accepted the invitations to lunch in the houses of the patients.