Fernandes Figueira institute

Rio de Janeiro health clinic.  Brasil visit December 2008

Founded in Rio in 1924  by a former director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry for Justice and Domestic Trade (Carlos Chagas), and a head of inspection for children’s health in the same department (Antonio Fernandes Figueira), the Fernandes Figueira institute specializes in following children from infancy through to adolescence: maternity, pediatrics, etc. In 1970, the Fernandes Figueira center joined hands with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a medical research institute that was part of the global Institut Pasteur network. In this framework, the Fernandes Figueira institute developed a milk bank: 115,000 women offer their breastmilk to be redistributed to women carrying HIV/AIDS. Some 140,000 children benefit from this program. In particular, it enables children whose mothers are HIV-positive to benefit from the nutritional and protective qualities of breastmilk without the risk of exposure to the virus. On December 22, 2008, within the framework of a State visit to Brazil, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy visited the Fernandes Figueira institute. On this occasion, she announced cooperation between France and Brazil to contribute the beneficial effects of a mother’s milk bank in Haiti, a country ravaged by AIDS. A first pilot French-Brazilian project started in September 2009 in the Port-au-Prince region.