Latin America

eridani

(51,907 posts) Fri Oct 10, 2014, 07:35 AM Oct 2014

aPo: In the medical response to Ebola, Cuba is punching far above its weight

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/10/04/in-the-medical-response-to-ebola-cuba-is-punching-far-above-its-weight/

While the international community has been accused of dragging its feet on the Ebola crisis, Cuba, a country of just 11 million people that still enjoys a fraught relationship with the United States, has emerged as a crucial provider of medical expertise in the West African nations hit by Ebola.

On Thursday, 165 health professionals from the country arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to join the fight against Ebola – the largest medical team of any single foreign nation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And after being trained to deal with Ebola, a further 296 Cuban doctors and nurses will go to Liberia and Guinea, the other two countries worst hit by the crisis.

Cuba is, by any measure, not a wealthy country. It had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of slightly more than $68 billion in 2011, according to the World Bank, putting it a few places higher than Belarus. At $6,051, its GDP per capita was less than one-sixth of Britain's. However, its official response to Ebola seems far more robust than many countries far wealthier than it – and serves as further proof that health-care professionals are up there with rum and cigars in terms of Cuban exports.

Cuba's universal health-care system enables such an export. The country nationalized its health care shortly after its revolution, ending private health care and guaranteeing free health care in its constitution. The results have been widely praised. In 2008, evaluating 30 years of Cuba's "primary health care revolution," the Bulletin of the World Health Organization pointed to impressive strides that the country had made in certain health indicators. "These indicators – which are close or equal to those in developed countries – speak for themselves," Gail Reed noted, pointing to a huge reduction in number of deaths for children under five years old and Cuba's high life expectancy of 77 years.

6 replies

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aPo: In the medical response to Ebola, Cuba is punching far above its weight (Original Post) eridani Oct 2014 OP

Cuba is famous for its doctors throughout Central- and South-America. DetlefK Oct 2014 #1

wsj: Cuban doctors stand at forefront of the #Ebola battle in Africa MinM Oct 2014 #2

Everyday heroes. Every nation should have such patriots, but they don't. Demeter Oct 2014 #3

Even though it's killing the Post, it has something decent to say about Cuba! Great! Judi Lynn Oct 2014 #4

Lessons the U.S. Can Learn From Cuba and the Ebola Crisis Judi Lynn Oct 2014 #5

What an ignorant article hack89 Oct 2014 #6

DetlefK

(16,423 posts)

1. Cuba is famous for its doctors throughout Central- and South-America.

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Fri Oct 10, 2014, 07:44 AM

Oct 2014

But, as the article says:

"Despite the high-profile acts of charity, the medical diplomacy more often seemed to serve more practical purposes – an estimated 30,000 health workers are currently in Venezuela as a partial payment for oil, for example. Exported medical expertise is predicted to net Cuba $8.2 billion in 2014, according to a recent report in state newspaper Granma. There are hopes that medical tourism and exported medical technology could one day provide similar figures.

It's not a simple picture. Critics have complained that Cuba has begun to sacrifice the health of its citizens at home to make money sending medical workers abroad, and the conditions for these medical workers themselves have been criticized – The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year that a significant number of Cuban health-care workers in Venezuela have fled the country to escape "crushing" workloads."

MinM

(2,650 posts)

2. wsj: Cuban doctors stand at forefront of the #Ebola battle in Africa

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Fri Oct 10, 2014, 08:52 AM

Oct 2014

Wall Street Journal ?@WSJ: Cuban doctors stand at forefront of the #Ebola battle in Africa http://on.wsj.com/1vSw7zX

Demeter

(85,373 posts)

3. Everyday heroes. Every nation should have such patriots, but they don't.

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Fri Oct 10, 2014, 12:07 PM

Oct 2014

Judi Lynn

(160,542 posts)

4. Even though it's killing the Post, it has something decent to say about Cuba! Great!

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Fri Oct 10, 2014, 12:18 PM

Oct 2014

Of course the Post had to take time to include comments from the most vicious critics to balance out any possible good coming from the story, as a conspicuous enemy of leftist governments in the Western Hemisphere, bar none.

Very begrudging admission, but they apparently felt it makes them look better to admit a little of the truth than to let other papers get the recognition for being the ones to cover the story alone!

Thanks for this article.

Judi Lynn

(160,542 posts)

5. Lessons the U.S. Can Learn From Cuba and the Ebola Crisis

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Fri Oct 10, 2014, 12:23 PM

Oct 2014

Dan Kovalik

Lessons the U.S. Can Learn From Cuba and the Ebola Crisis
Posted: 09/30/2014 6:00 pm EDT Updated: 09/30/2014 6:59 pm EDT

A story I read on Cuba's sending 300 additional medical personnel to Africa to help with the Ebola epidemic made a great impression on me. Published in Telesur English, the piece read, in pertinent part:

Cuba, which has about 50,000 health workers stationed across the world, received accolades from the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) for its effort against Ebola, last week, when it already had the largest foreign medical team fighting the killer virus in West Africa, consisting of 62 doctors and 103 nurses.

The U.S. has sent 3,000 troops to Liberia as part of its response to Ebola, which it considers a matter of national security. In addition, the U.S. pledged 65 clinicians and support staff, to treat infected health care workers, but not civilians.

The import of these few lines is great. Cuba, a poor country with a population smaller than the metropolitan area of New York City and a country under a 50-year embargo imposed by the U.S., is sending more medical staff to combat the Ebola virus than any other country and a multiple of what the U.S. is sending. And, as is quite typical, the U.S.'s chief contribution is the sending of soldiers. This is a repeat of the situation in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake when the U.S. sent 14,000 soldiers while Cuba and Venezuela, with doctors already on the ground, have been the backbone of the effort to fight the ensuing cholera epidemic.

The U.S.'s decision to send soldiers to fight disease says it all. Every problem to the U.S. -- a country which is armed to the teeth and which has become the proverbial hammer of the world -- looks like a nail. This state of affairs has become dangerous for the world which fears the U.S. more than any other country, and for the U.S. itself which has been drained of treasure and the blood of its young fighting men and women who have been sent to fight far-flung wars which, let's face it, have largely caused more problems than they have solved.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/lessons-the-us-can-learn-_b_5908542.html

hack89

(39,171 posts)

6. What an ignorant article

Reply to Judi Lynn (Reply #5)

Fri Oct 10, 2014, 03:22 PM

Oct 2014

does the author really think that the US military sent combat arms troops instead of medical personnel, logistics experts and engineers?

The US military is the best disaster relief organization in the world precisely because only they can get massive amounts of aid to anywhere in the world in quick order and also bring the means to distribute the aid. Toss in high tech deployable hospitals and you can see why the US military has been at the center of so many natural disaster relief efforts all around the world.

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