On April 10, 2023, the President of Factor-H, Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuan, and members of the management team in Colombia, met with Carlos Manuel Higgins Villanueva, mayor of Juan de Acosta, to discuss the management of a municipal space by Factor-H, which aims to serve as an operations center for the services and activities provided by Factor-H in the region, aimed at improving the quality of life of Huntington’s patients, their families and caregivers. The meeting was also attended by the first lady of the municipality, interested in promoting the incorporation of older adults within the concept of alliance of entities that seek to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable.
Higgings Villanueva commented at the meeting that the problem of people affected by Huntington’s disease “is well known to me, because it was suffered by one of my best childhood friends who lived next door to our home … He was an extremely intelligent person -he recalled-, and yet he passed away after suffering the devastating effects of this disease.”
On behalf of Factor-H, also assisted to the meeting, Zuleima Bonilla -graduated in bacteriology and clinical microbiology- and general coordinator for Factor-H Colombia, as well as Leyla Mieles, administrative & health coordinator for the Foundation. Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuan explained that the result of the meeting “could not have been more positive”, since it became manifest the willingness to collaborate by both sides, “and now we are ready to move on to the review of the documents, the study of management costs that Factor-H would assume and the suitability of the proposed space” he concluded.
Juan de Acosta is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Atlántico, with a population of more than 17,000 inhabitants, and is considered the second largest cluster of HD families in the world.
English 
Spanish 
Portuguese