Cuba pledges more doctors, nurses to fight Ebola in Africa

Cuba pledges more doctors, nurses to fight Ebola in Africa
BY JOHN ZAROCOSTAS
McClatchy Foreign StaffOctober 20, 2014

GENEVA — The announcement Monday by Cuba that it will send an additional
91 medical staff to help contain the Ebola virus outbreak surging across
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea brings the island nation's contribution
of people fighting the epidemic to 256 – or more than one-third of all
foreign medical staff in the three hardest-hit West African countries.

The new pledge by Cuba's minister of public health, Roberto Morales
Ojeda, came in Havana during an extraordinary summit on Ebola. The 91
include 53 doctors and nurses who will be sent to Liberia and 38 to
Guinea; 165 Cuban health care workers already are in Sierra Leone.

David Nabarro, the United Nations special envoy on Ebola who was in
Havana for the meeting, told McClatchy that the new Cuban teams are
scheduled to leave Tuesday for Liberia and Guinea.

Cuba's contribution of people to fight the outbreak has drawn outsized
attention as the world health system struggles to find the resources to
combat what is becoming one of the most serious public health crises in
a generation. The World Health Organization's director, Margaret Chan,
called the Cuban doctors and nurses "a most welcome face of hope to what
is otherwise a horrific outbreak."

WHO spokesman Dan Epstein said the organization has deployed about 600
health care workers to the three most affected countries since the start
of the outbreak.

WHO still needs more medical professionals to travel to the three
countries, Epstein said. "The needs are quite high," he said,
calculating that WHO needs 25 international staff and 200 local medical
workers for each of 40 Ebola treatment centers it's hoping to open soon.

According to the Pan-American Health Organization, WHO's office in the
Western Hemisphere, the Cuban government has trained 460 doctors and
nurses on the strict precautions that must be taken to treat people with
the highly contagious virus.

Epstein said the United States has pledged to send 65 commissioned
public health service corps officers and 100 staff from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to the three countries. The U.S. also has
committed to send 3,000 U.S. service personnel to run labs and build
treatment centers.

Other countries that have sent medical professional include Canada,
China, Russia, Uganda and the United Kingdom, Epstein said.

WHO is negotiating with Germany, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines for
additional medical professional, he said.

Source: GENEVA: Cuba pledges more doctors, nurses to fight Ebola in
Africa | World | McClatchy DC -
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