Cuba Sends Doctors Around The World - Not Only In Times Of Corona

[Judi Lynn]

Monday, 6 April 2020, 5:28 pm

In the midst of the Corona crisis, teams of Cuban doctors have landed in Italy and Andorra to provide medical support to Europe. However, this is not the first time that the island state has shown solidarity this way. Medical cooperation with other countries has long been one of the principles of the Cuban health system: actions of solidarity from which we can learn.

In 1998, when hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean killed thousands of people and left millions homeless, Cuba sent medical aid to 5 countries in the region. At the same time, then President Fidel Castro announced the opening of a medical college for the free education of students from developing countries. Today, the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina in Havana trains more than 10,000 students from at least 27 countries.

The 6-year training is characterized not only by teaching theoretical content, but above all by its strong relationship to practice. Those who study medicine in Cuba do not do so only to concentrate on healing. The ELAM stands for solidarity between Cuba and other countries. Its mission is to ensure basic medical care and to assist in the sustainable development of medical practice in various regions of the world.

Cuban Doctors help where others do not
According to the Cuban Ministry of Health, there have been over 600,000 missions to 164 countries since 1963. Currently, around 30,000 specialists are working in some of the poorest and most medically underserved areas of the world. Most of them are in Latin America and Africa. During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Cuba sent more than 460 doctors to the affected regions. The Cuban relief mission was the largest group of medical professionals sent at the time. Much more assistance was needed, but with the exception of Cuba, the little international response there was came very slowly.

More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2004/S00038/cuba-sends-doctors-around-the-world-not-only-in-times-of-corona.htm

[Paka]

1. Socialism has a lot positives.

[Blue_Tires]

3. There is a darker side to this story of course

but overall this program is a positive, I think...