Ebola and Cuban medical “diplomacy”

There are people who can´t stand the humanitarian and heroic behavior of Cuba and affirm it is a political maneuver of the small island of the Caribbean blocked by the United States.

Some days ago I was reading carefully a Vicky Pelaez’s news article. She wondered about the possible causes of the Ebola virus spreading in African soil. She tackled the conspiracy theory in terms of bio-economic war, as well as the deep-rooted poverty of those lands inherited from colonial times.

Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, the first countries affected by the virus and former colonies of the United Kingdom, France, and United States, respectively, are not poor lands, stated the analyst. For instance, Sierra Leone is one of the main reservoirs of diamonds. Guinea is rich in diamonds as well, but has also aluminum, and gold. Finally, Liberia is the third largest exporter of iron. Apparently, their inhabitants (the world’s poorest) have the “misfortune” of being born in rich lands ambitioned and plundered by great powers.

Another article published in the independent research web portal Old-Thinker News, and mentioned by Russia Today also tackled the causes of the outbreak, resulting in 4,500 deaths so far. Its author, Daniel Taylor, denounced that in Apartheid times back in the 1980s, Dr. Wouter Basson launched in South Africa a secret biological weapon project named Costa Project to develop biological and chemical agents (Ebola and Marburg viruses) that could sterilize black population and kill political enemies.

The US Embassy in Pretoria was worried about the “military” strain secret project. The US triggered the alarms due to an article published in 2001 by The New Yorker magazine, where there existed the possibility Dr. Basson revealed the deep connections between Costa Project and the US.

Basson’s bioweapons program officially ended in 1994, but there has been no independent verification that the pathogens created were ever destroyed.Did this strain of Ebola accidentally escape from a bioweapons lab? Or, was it deliberately released?, concluded Taylor.

Meanwhile, Vicky said that whatever the real cause of the spreading of the virus may be, it is now the turn of honest scientists to find the solution to stop and eradicate Ebola as soon as possible. Mankind needs it.

We all agree on that. WHO (World Health Organization) Deputy Director Marie Paule Kieny confirmed today that the trials with the two more advanced vaccines will show their results in December. If positive, the vaccines will be shipped to the three countries affected, starting in January. She accepted that it will take “months” to stop and eradicate the outbreak.

That is why urgent medical attention to those infected with the virus is critical as well as the implementation of preventive measures to the rest of the population.

Cuba is known worldwide for its solidarity (23,158 physicians and paramedics in 25 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean). Our country immediately offered its most precious treasure (its human capital). A group of 300 Cuban professionals, organized by Cuban authorities to face the outbreak in the countries affected by Ebola, departed to Liberia and Guinea, while other group of 165 doctors arrived in Sierra Leona early in October.

Even Secretary of State John F. Kerry praised last Friday “the courage of any health care worker who is undertaking this challenge,”and made a brief acknowledgment of Cuba’s response while American newspaper The New York Times published: “Cuba has a long tradition of dispatching doctors and nurses to disaster areas abroad. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Cuban government created a quick-reaction medical corps and offered to send doctors to New Orleans.Yet officials in Washington seemed thrilled to learn in recent weeks that Cuba had activated the medical teams for missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea”.

However, there are people who cannot stand the humanitarian and heroic behavior of Cuba and have unleashed a media campaign to ensure Cuba’s generosity is a diplomatic maneuver to improve the image of this small island blocked by the United States.

Even if they are right, some major economic powers should imitate Cuban medical “diplomacy” and not impose the diplomacy of war, plunder, and hunger.

So, while rich countries skimp economic resources to treat the disease and seek shielded to prevent virus entry across its borders, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Haiti, Granada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis, led by Cuba, have decided to go to the origin of the epidemic as a major preventive action, as announced in the conclusions of the Extraordinary Summit of ALBA-TCP held in Havana on Monday.

The US believes they are “helping” by sending around 4,000 soldiers to support medical authorities in affected countries. The US is also building robots to allegedly deliver food or medicine, purify medical devices, and bury the victims of the virus. To do so, the Texas University A&M will host on November 7^th a conference where physicians, scientists, and robotics researchers will attend.

There are also people who take profits from the misfortunes of others —as the capitalist model inculcates— to make money. A US company (Giant Microbes Inc., in Connecticut) that is selling “educative” microbe-like plush toys at 10-30 USD. The Ebola model has been a success and the demand is so high they have been all sold off.

Back to the very beginning of the story, about the origins of the illness, I do not think those who know the truth make it publicly one day. Perhaps we should wait for the new Assange or Snowden of the future to reveal the truth.

Nonetheless, there is crystal-clear truth: that of the poverty holocaust exterminating people in Africa. But that truth is not part of the world authorities’ agenda even though it has become a major cause of death in the continent. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine to eradicate it, yet.

Cubasi Translation Staff