60 years of Cuban medical cooperation: heroism and professionalism

More than 605,698 Cuban health workers have collaborated in 165 countries around the world. This figure was published on Wednesday by Tania Margarita Cruz Hernandez, the island’s first deputy minister of public health, on the 60th anniversary of the first medical brigade that left to save lives: on May 23, 1963, to Algeria.

The ceremony, which took place in the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation in Havana, was attended by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the President of the Republic, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez, together with Commander José Ramón Machado Ventura, organizer of that first brigade and then Minister of Health.

“The dream of our undefeated Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, come true, summons us today in this arena. These years, marked by events such as the creation of the Comprehensive Health Program after Hurricanes George and Mitch passed through Central America, in 1998,” said Cruz Hernandez, who gives an emotional account; Also, in 2003, the Special Mission to Venezuela, the Barrio Adentro Programme, led by Chávez.

The first deputy spoke of the “beautiful miracle operation that restored vision and with it the useful life of people from 35 countries in America and Africa: more than three million people saw the light again with this program”; As well as the 2005 constitution of the Henry Reeve International Unit of Physicians Specializing in Disaster Response and Critical Epidemiology. Since then, he noted, 89 brigades have been sent to 57 countries.

In his assessment of these six decades, Cruz Hernandez referred to the More Doctors program in Brazil, which he described as another important milestone that emerged in 2013, “as part of South-South Cooperation, an experiment of triangular cooperation between the Ministry of Health and the Environment, the WHO of the Pan American and Ministry of Health of Brazil.

Likewise, he mentioned in his words “the heroic participation of 265 Cuban professionals in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Another example of the courage of our army in white coats who did not hesitate to go out, once again, to save lives.”

Referring to the scourge of the epidemic, “58 brigades were formed who left in these difficult years for 42 countries, risking their lives, the same ones that returned to Cuba in the most difficult moment of the epidemic to join the heroic army of white coats that they faced across the country on the front lines.” to fight.

Today, it works in 57 countries, with some 22,400 collaborators, 54% of whom are women, and has described them as heroines.

In this act of passion, the Ministry of Public Health acknowledged Army General Raul Castro Cruz, President Diaz-Canel, and the rebel army commander, José Ramón Machado Ventura, for their support of the medical brigades during these years. The Central de Trabajadores de Cuba also marked the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation with its 80th anniversary seal, an institution in which the medical services provided by Cuba to other countries are created and provided.

Previously, there, the Head of State and First Deputy Minister unveiled a bust in honor of Henry Reeve, the young American who became a Brigadier General in the Liberation Army and who takes his name from the prestigious Medical Brigade.