Gastritis and gastric cancer and other related diseases represent a big national burden in Bhutan. A root cause for deadly gastric cancer is an infection with Helicobacter-pylori in the stomach.  Up to 90% of Bhutanese are infected with an especially virulent and aggressive H-pylori strain. Therefore gastritis is a very common pain for many people and the incidence of deadly gastric cancer is 5fold in Bhutan.
Dasho Kado, former chief bodyguard and ADC to the King of Bhutan, and Gerwin, a pharmacist from Germany, have created the idea of the SAIL in Bhutan project.  SAIL stands for Saving And Improving Lives. We would like to help the patients in Bhutan with a free eradication program of H-pylori infection. We have chosen the WHO globally approved triple therapy with the so called PAC regimen for 10 days of treatment with:
• Pantoprazole 40mg bid (twice daily)
• Amoxicillin 1000mg bid (twice daily)
• Clarithromycin 500mg bid (twice daily)

The medicines were manufactured under highest standard from a globally respected pharma company, just for SAIL.
Thanks to the coordination from Kado and as directed by Honorable Secretary of Health, Dasho Dr. Ugyen Dophu, several meetings were held in 2018 with us, to discuss our project SAIL in Bhutan, which received overwhelming support from the ministry, the department of medical supplies, gastroenterologists and pharmacists.

Description of our project:
Patients will be diagnosed via gastroendoscopy on positive H-pylori infection. Then they will take PAC for 10 days to eradicate their H-pylori. They will be supported with a special designed compliance program in which nurses and our local SAIL project coordinator will remind them daily on correct intake of the medicines and check also on their quality of life (QoL) changes. We expect a very high eradication success rate which will be measured 6-12 weeks after treatment as instructed by international guidelines for this therapy. Results will be measured with modern technology, the non-invasive urea breath tests. The UBTs and the accompanying infrared spectrometer device were also donated for free by SAIL. QoL and all results will be documented in a specially designed registry data base anonymously. The Bhutanese ethical committee approves the project and patient consent will be documented as well. Patients will be retested and followed up once a year, for up to 10 years. Results and data will be published in due course.
The SAIL project will start in 2019 with more than 2.000 patients in its first phase. But there are many more thousands of patients in unmet medical need. Therefore we would like to ask you for your support. Save for about just $15 one life – and help to eradicate gastric cancer in a whole country! Every patient counts!

Thank you sincerly

Kado and Gerwin

Donations:
SAIL in Bhutan e.V. / Oettingenstrasse 26 / 80538 München, Germany
Bank:                         Kreissparkasse München Starnberg Ebersberg
Account #:                29058062
IBAN:                         DE 10 7025 0150 0029 0580 62
BIC:                            BYLADEM1KMS