MINUSTAH Praises Work of Cuban Doctors in Haiti

Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) Edmond Mulet said that the work Cuban doctors are carrying out in Haiti is extraordinary.

“Cuban doctors are working on every corner of Haiti devotedly, despite the hard situation the country faces, a horrible situation indeed," told the official to the Prensa Latina news agency.

“They are here despite the hardships. They are committed professionals making a remarkable effort to help the people of Haiti,” he said, adding that he is an admirer of the work these men and women have been doing here, not only after the January 12 earthquake, but long before.

He also made reference to Cuban medical missions in other Latin American countries.

The Henry Reeve Brigade in Haiti is made up by professional from 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries, including 7 American graduates from Cuba’s Latin American Medical School.

The first team of Cuban doctors arrived in Haiti in 1998 with the objective of helping the people recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Georges, which hit the country on September of the same year

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More Cuban Docs in Haiti after Tremor

Havana, Jan 15 (Prensa Latina) Another group of 60 member of the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade against Disasters and Serious Epidemics has started assisting victims of the quake that hit Haiti last Tuesday.

The team, with experience in China, Pakistan, Guatemala, Indonesia and Bolivia, joined the 344 Cuban health collaborators who were already working in that Caribbean nation before the devastating 7.3-degree earthquake.

As part of the solidarity support to one of the poorest countries of the world, now strongly hit by nature, the Havana government has sent medicines, serum and plasma bags, foods and other provisions.

Cuban physicians have assisted some 2,000 patients and carry out 111 major surgeries and 60 minor surgeries in an improvised field hospital, several mass media reported.

Interviewed by Cuban television, several doctors described the situation in Haiti as critical, and ratified their willingness to work hard to help relieve the pain of a suffering nation.

The three Cubans who were working in Port au Prince at the time of the quake and got wounded, one of them seriously, were flown back to Cuba, the report indicated.


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UNICEF: Cuba free of severe child malnutrition

THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has confirmed that Cuba is the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean to have eliminated acute child malnutrition, thanks to the efforts of its government.

In its report "Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition," quoted by the Cubadebate website, UNICEF says that some 146 million children under 5 in the underdeveloped world live in a state of wasting levels of malnutrition, in contrast to the reality of Cuban children.

In that respect, the reports says that the percentages of underweight children are 28% in Sub-Saharan Africa; 17% in the Middle East and North Africa; 15% in East Asia and the Pacific, and 7% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The picture is completed by Central and Eastern Europe, with 5%, and other underdeveloped countries with 27%.

Cuba, however, does not present problems of acute child malnutrition, thanks to the efforts of the state to improve the alimentation of its population, especially the most vulnerable groups.

To the country’s satisfaction, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has likewise recognized that Cuba is the nation with the most advances in Latin America in fighting malnutrition.

The Cubadebate article added, nevertheless, that Cuba is not exempt from shortcomings, difficulties and serious limitations, fundamentally because of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States during the last 50 years. (AIN)

Translated by Granma International



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Chavez Thanks Cuban Support of Social Programs

CARACAS, December 24.—

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez thanked the Cuban people for their support and expertise in implementing social programs promoted by his government in Venezuela during a televised session of the Council of Ministers.
Chavez also announced the start up of the Baby Jesus Mission that aims to provide mother-child care throughout the country.
Prensa Latina reported that the Venezuelan government has earmarked US$ 150 million for the program for the first half of 2010 to strengthen hospital infrastructure, and to fund medical equipment and medicines to help pregnant women and mothers.
The program will cover care of pregnant women and then guarantee medial checkups for mother and child five years after birth.


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Jamaican Minister Praises Cuban Ophthalmologists

Kingston, December 23 (Prensa Latina)

The Cuban ophthalmologists'' work and capacity in Jamaica were praised by the Health Minister Rudyard Spencer, who also explained that his country suffers a serious lack of specialists in that sphere.

Spencer and the Jamaican Ambassador in Cuba Yuri Gala visited three ophthalmology centers, in which Cuban collaborators work. Those centers were equipped at a cost of 6 million dollar and will have capacity for 22 patients.

It will be open next January 27 and "will have a team of competent professionals that will fill the human resources' gap", the minister stated.

In the meantime he mentioned the opportunities of training that are being studied with Cuba in order to increase the figure of native professionals.

The patients will receive free healthcare, Spencer pointed out.

Since the collaboration program began, the Cuban ophthalmologists have treated 20 thousand patients and have performed 4 thousand cataract operations.

Jamaica joined the Operacion Milagro Program, sponsored by Cuba and Venezuela, which has also benefit Dominican Republic, Guyana, Santa Lucia and Surinam.

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