Che’s Daughter Stresses Solidarity of Cuban Medical Missions

Cuban medical missions work all over the world under the premise that solidarity is not to give what is left over but to provide what others need, said in this capital Dr. Aleida Guevara March.

Che’s daughter, who visits this country to support the Operación Milagro (Operation Miracle) program that has restored sight to about 48,000 Argentines since 2005, highlighting in particular the departure of specialists to Africa to fight the deadly Ebola virus.

Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz, saw on Wednesday night to 165 health professionals off, who travelled to Sierra Leone to be part of the global fight against Ebola.

The contingent is made up 62 doctors and 103 nurses, all experienced severe natural disasters and epidemics.

Is what we are used to do, replied the doctor when Prensa Latina asked her opinion on this new solidarity aid.

‘It is our duty; we are Afro-Latin Americans, and we’ll take our solidarity to the children of that continent, for their contribution to our nation’, she added.

Aleida Guevara participated last night in the discussion ‘Health workers and international missions of Cuba’, organized by the Association of State Workers in its national headquarters in Buenos Aires.

She noted that since the 1960s, some 76, 745 health professionals have worked in 109 countries worldwide, 39 of these Africans. In these moments, there are 4, 048 working in 32 countries on the continent, of which 2, 269 are physicians.

But such assistance is provided equally in Latin America, where there are thousands of health workers, including doctors, technicians and nurses, in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Central America and most recently in Brazil.

Despite being a poor country that faces a blockade imposed by the United States for more than 50 years, Cuba has provided such assistance without neglecting medical care on the island, where today the infant mortality rate is four per 1,000 live births. She recalled that when the revolution triumphed in 1959, the rate was 60 per 1,000.

In addition to this cooperation, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, opened in Havana, in 1999, the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).

More than 38, 920 health professionals from 121 countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia, have graduated in Cuba, particularly in the ELAM. In addition, Cuban specialists contribute to the formation of 29, 580 medical students in 10 nations.

Che’s daughter highlighted the creation in 2005 of the international contingent of doctors Henry Reeve, specialized in natural and epidemiological disasters. She said that 4, 156 of its members have already served missions in seven countries (Guatemala, Pakistan, Bolivia, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru and China) with significant results in their work.