Congratulations to Cuban Medical Brigades

[Billy Burnett]

Congratulations to Cuban Medical Brigades
http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3433:fidel-castro-sends-congratulations-to-cuban-medical-brigades&catid=2:cuba&Itemid=14

Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, First Vice-president of the councils of State and Ministers, conveyed the message sent by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, during a meeting with the 139 professionals who offered their services in these countries and with another group that will soon leave for Venezuela.

During the meeting, held at the Central Unit of Medical Cooperation of the Public Health Ministry (MINSAP), the member of the Politburo of the Cuban Communist Party also conveyed Fidel’s recognition of the services rendered by the 905 voluntary workers of this sector giving their help in Haiti.

He highlighted the concern of the Commander in Chief for the difficult situation the Haitian people is living, which, after the earthquake, is going through a cholera epidemic that has already caused over 1,500 deaths and that it’s estimated it can affect some 400,000 people.

Machado Ventura recalled that, since 1998, Cuban medical brigades are carrying out missions of cooperation and solidarity in Haiti, and conveyed the special acknowledgement and best wishes sent by Fidel to the professionals from that country, Chile and Nicaragua, who are showing the humanism of health workers, he stressed.

The Todos Con Voz brigade, which carried out a genetic-clinical study of over126, 000 patients with disabilities and visited more than 179,000 houses, sent Fidel the Order of Cultural Independence, given to that group by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Meanwhile the Chilean brigade gave Machado Ventura the Key to the City of Rancagua and another acknowledgement of the Medical School of that nation, and sent its message to Fidel for having fulfilled the honorable mission in the fraternal nation.

Cuban Public Health Minister Roberto Morales announced that, at present, there are over 39,000 health voluntary workers in 60 States and underlined that international medical cooperation, initiated in Chile 50 years ago, has made it possible to save countless lives and to increase health indicators in more than 100 countries.