Cuban medics a big force on Haiti cholera frontline

[Judi Lynn]

Cuban medics a big force on Haiti cholera frontline
Fri Dec 3, 2010 4:57pm GMT

By Pascal Fletcher
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - They don't send out press releases, don't have public information officers and their contacts are not widely publicized by the huge international humanitarian operation helping cholera-hit Haiti.

But when the United Nations appeals for more doctors and nurses to combat the deadly disease that is killing dozens by the day, it is to Cuba's medical brigade that U.N. officials are likely to turn to first.

With a tradition of service in the world's poorest and most forgotten states, the Cubans are a major frontline force in the multinational response to the raging epidemic, which has killed at least 2,000 people and probably more, since mid-October in the impoverished country.

While many Western aid workers crowd Haiti's capital, where more than 1.3 million vulnerable homeless survivors of the January 12 earthquake are crammed into tent camps, Cuba's medics are seeking out cholera victims in hard-to-reach rural hamlets.

More:
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6B24G620101203?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

[Billy Burnett]

1. Mika commented in another thread that Cuba has sent another 2000 Drs. from the brigade.

Come to think about it, Mika seems to find out about what the H.R. Brigade is doing before anyone else around here. Hmmm. Funny, that.