Repeating Islands

More than 25,000 patients have been treated by Cuban surgeons, doctors, nurses and other health specialists in Haiti, after the earthquake that destroyed this city January 12.

Around 2,000 injured reach the health centers in Port-au-Prince daily, in the outskirts and other departments, where 12 medical units in which 14 surgery teams have undertaken emergency care actions.

The Cuban health forces present in Haiti outnumber 700 people, of them 374 in the capital city who are working along with interns and Haitians on the 5th year of medical studies in Cuba and others who had already graduated from the Havana-based Latin American Medical School.

Doctor Mirta Roses, director of the Pan-American Health Organization, rightfully recognized the efforts of the Cubans and assured that PHO will maintain collaboration with Haiti through them.

The regional leader stated in this city that PHO has been providing through the Cuban medical brigade, sanitary transportation to the hospitals, orthopedic surgery materials, prosthesis and other means for those who were left physically disabled by the quake.

At the same time, the Dominican Republic´s Health Ministry requested the Cuban help through PHO in the Haitian border, 40 km from Port-au-Prince, in the town of Ganthier. In the Fond Parisien community of Ganthier several patients are receiving post-surgery treatment after being operated in the Dominican city of Jimani.

The work of the Cuban doctors in Haiti has been supported by the logistic efforts of volunteers from Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and Spain, including nuns from different religious denominations.

NPR has also dedicated a program to the work of Cuban doctors, calling them “the unsung heroes of Haiti’s earthquake. You can hear the program at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122919202

For the original report go to http://www.escambray.cu/Eng/Special/medic100126837