Brazil launches women's health mobile units in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro

The Ministry of Health expanded the "Agora Tem Especialistas" programme by deploying two women’s health mobile units on 15 June in the Bahia towns of Valença and Brumado. The units will provide gynecological consultations, mammograms, pelvic and transvaginal ultrasounds and biopsies for early detection of breast and cervical cancer to patients of the public SUS system.

A separate unit was inaugurated on 12 June in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, where it will remain at the local emergency care centre for 30 days, offering up to 80 examinations a day. Officials present included programme director Rodrigo Oliveira and health secretary Clarissa Rippel. The Petrópolis deployment was accompanied by a federal equipment package valued at roughly R$1.5 million.

Since the mobile units began circulating nationwide, they have visited more than 2,900 municipalities, bringing specialised diagnostics to underserved areas and reducing waiting times for cancer screening across Brazil.