Cuban medical brigade in Italy celebrates one year of collaboration

The first 51 doctors of the Cuban brigade that has provided health care in the southern Italian region of Calabria is celebrating one year today since the beginning of its mission, a sign of humanism, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Dr. Luis Enrique Pérez, head of the Cuban medical brigade, told Prensa Latina that all 51 experts, who were joined by 120 others who arrived on August 4, 2023, have written a new page of collaboration with Italy in the health care sector.

Due to their professionalism, humility and ability to face any difficulties to fulfill the assigned task, the members of the medical brigade have earned, during this year of intense work, the respect and gratitude of the people, as well as the regional government.

On November 26, one month before this first anniversary, during an event to honor the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, seven years after his death, the political and health authorities of Calabria acknowledged the work done by the Cuban medical experts.

On that occasion, the president of the region of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, and Cuban Ambassador to Italy Mirta Granda highlighted the performance of the Cuban medical brigade in the hospitals of Polistena, Gioia Tauro, Locri and Melito Porto di Salvo, where health indicators were improved.

In recent months, they made “a key contribution to our region to keep hospitals open and respond to patients,” said Occhiuto, adding that “when I said that I would hire Cuban doctors, many criticized me for my initiative, and today “everyone in Italy wants to imitate me.”

All 51 medical experts who arrived in Calabria in 2022, 38 men and 13 women, cover nine specialties and all have extensive professional experience, as most of them have provided their services in various nations around the world.

Cuba’s solidarity medical assistance in Italy is a continuation of the one provided in 2020 by brigades of the Henry Reeve Medical Cont

ingent in the northern cities of Crema and Turin, during the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.