59 years ago, today Cuba began international medical cooperation

Same thing today, as it was 59 years ago when Cuba started International Medical CooperationWhoever the doctors Heroes of this featproudly and nobly willing, amassed dozens of epic stories to count.

Many extreme situations that have endured over the past decades on this planet depend on Cuban support At the risk of exposing their lives, professionals went to fight Ebola in Africa in 2014, or on other occasions they had to work under campaign conditions to provide assistance.
Although all those born on the island know this immense altruism, admiration for the health staff is renewed once they hear the testimony of Dr. Michael Cabrera, Director of the Central Unit for Cuban Medical Cooperation.

“Those of us who have been able to cooperate over the years feel healthy pride in seeing what has been done, and the satisfaction of helping other peoples who, without our help, would have been denied the invaluable medical care they needed at that time, and may have died,” Cabrera admitted. Prinsa Latina.

These achievements began on May 23, 1963 when the 1st Medical Brigade left for Algeria on the initiative of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, but he added that this set a precedent by sending a group of professionals to Chile. and supplies to help the country after the 1960 earthquake.

After these first actions, the doctor highlighted the arrival in 1998 of specialized personnel in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, after landslides caused by Hurricanes Mitch and George in Central America, events that also marked the beginning of the comprehensive health program.

He noted that the founding of the Barrio Adentro Program in Venezuela in 2003 represented another milestone, because thanks to him, an organized health system based on primary care was spread throughout the geography of that nation.

He added that as of September 19, 2005, after the establishment of the Henry Reeve International Corps of Physicians in Disasters and Serious Epidemics, Medical Collaboration has written other great stories.

He said that since that year until now, 88 medical brigades have been sent to different parts of the world, and we can’t stop talking about 58 brigades, with 4,700 specialists, in recent years fighting the Covid-19 epidemic in 42 countries.

Today we are present in 58 countries with more than 26000 collaborators, and everyone is satisfied with our ability to help each of the cities we have been in, because in those places we have received appreciation and satisfaction from the people and that is enough he said it is the pride of one of the collaborators.

Recently, Mexico, a region that received support with nearly 1,200 specialists in the difficult times of the epidemic, made a request to alleviate the currently unmet care needs, in the face of which we are best prepared to help, said the specialist in holistic general medicine.

Cabrera acknowledged that the path taken was not an easy one, mainly due to smear campaigns that seek to discredit the professional ability of the island’s human resources. The best way to respond to all of these slanders is to continue to do what we know how to do, and the greatest expression of our success is having a health system that has reached indicators similar to those in the first world and creating capabilities in the face of emergencies, which has manifested itself in the management of Covid-19,” he said.

Likewise, he described the US government’s intent to exclude the island from the Summit of the Americas as perverted, particularly as it is an event whose supposed theme is “building a sustainable, resilient and equitable future” for the hemisphere.

It makes no sense to try to leave Cuba because it is probably the country with the most experience in the disparate situations resulting from Covid-19, given that our doctors have been in all regions of the world fighting the virus, and they have been shared with the specialists from those lands, he said.

The official also highlighted the uniqueness of the island’s specialized staff.

The Cuban doctor touches patients and shares their feelings and the practice of interacting with and caring for him is not the norm today, he said.

All of our medical staff have the necessary preparations for the scenarios that exist in different countries, and in some of these places, we have verified that an essential component of medicine is missing: humanism; He said that people are grateful for that and that gratitude is ultimately the most important thing.