Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Cuban doctors head to Italy battle coronavirus
March 22, 2020 / 12:01 AM / Updated 8 hours ago
Cuban doctors head to Italy battle coronavirus
Nelson Acosta
4 Min Read
HAVANA (Reuters) - Communist-run Cuba said it dispatched a brigade of doctors and nurses to Italy for the first time this weekend to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus at the request of the worst-affected region Lombardy.
The Caribbean island has sent its “armies of white robes” to disaster sites around the world largely in poor countries since its 1959 revolution. Its doctors were in the front lines in the fight against cholera in Haiti and against ebola in West Africa in the 2010s.
Yet with the 52-strong brigade, this is the first time Cuba has sent an emergency contingent to Italy, one of the world’s richest countries, demonstrating the reach of its medical diplomacy.
This is the sixth medical brigade Cuba has sent in recent days to combat the spread of the new disease abroad. It has sent contingents to socialist allies Venezuela and Nicaragua as well as Jamaica, Suriname and Grenada.
“We are all afraid but we have a revolutionary duty to fulfill, so we take out fear and put it to one side,” Leonardo Fernandez, 68, an intensive care specialist, told Reuters late on Saturday shortly before his brigade’s departure.
“He who says he is not afraid is a superhero, but we are not superheros, we are revolutionary doctors.”
“He who says he is not afraid is a superhero, but we are not superheros, we are revolutionary doctors.”
Fernandez said this would be his eighth international mission, including one in Liberia during the fight against ebola.
more...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cuba-idUSKBN219051?taid=5e76e65aef5fb40001468428&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter&fbclid=IwAR2ET1fFtNXmLzobb7JgRcl2xufkr2dFWe7UDsw0QkTaHilL8kbgMvSwN4I
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
