CUBAN GOVERNMENT BANS DOCTORS FIGHTING EBOLA IN AFRICA FROM RETURNING IF THEY GET SICK

CUBAN GOVERNMENT BANS DOCTORS FIGHTING EBOLA IN AFRICA FROM RETURNING IF
THEY GET SICK
by FRANCES MARTEL 16 Oct 2014 10 POST A COMMENT

While the Ebola outbreak in west Africa has been nothing short of
devastating for affected nations, at least one country has been able to
exploit the crisis to garner goodwill: Cuba, whose communist government
has vowed to send hundreds of doctors to the region. What those covering
the deployment from the tiny island have not reported is the vow doctors
must take never to return to Cuba should they contract Ebola on the job.
Al Jazeera reports that Cuba has promised to send 300 doctors to west
Africa; as of now, 165 have been deployed in Sierra Leone. The doctors
will be working alongside African personnel to diagnose, quarantine, and
treat Ebola patients.
Leftist publications have marveled at what they argue is the nation's
trademark charity on display. The Guardian praised Cuba's "leadership"
on this front, quoting romanticized mass murderer Ernesto "Che" Guevara
for evidence of the communist nation's conscience. The Nation, whose
propaganda efforts to promote the state sponsor of terrorism is rivaled
only by El Granma itself, somehow managed to twist the news that Cuban
doctors were working abroad into an indictment on the United States (of
course). CNN has dutifully repeated the statistic that 15,000 Cuban
health workers have volunteered to die on the front lines fighting
Ebola, a statistic provided by the Cuban government with nothing but the
Cuban government's word to rely on for evidence.
What reports have not covered are the conditions in which Cuban medical
personnel are being forced to go. For one, in what is internationally an
unprecedented move for a state, Argentine news outlet Infobae is
reporting that Cuban doctors are being forced to sign a release wherein
they promise never to return to Cuba should they contract Ebola. The
state will not airlift them back to the island for care, as most other
nations providing humanitarian support-- most prominently Spain and the
United States-- have done with their workers. The news comes from a
doctor who was pre-selected to travel to west Africa but eventually
decided against it, who reported that doctors must "sign a document in
which they renounce their right to return if they contract the disease
in Africa." Should the doctors die, they must agree to being incinerated
in Africa.
Cuban doctor Jeovany Jiménez confirmed to Infobae that "such an exit has
not been given by any nation implicated," much less nations involved in
providing aid. The doctor added that whether Cuban doctors were
sufficiently well-trained to actually provide valuable help in Africa
would require a "wait and see" approach.
The opposition publication El Diario de Cuba reports that doctors have
been told there is a "90%" chance they will never return to Cuba, and
that part of the screening process required doctors to be "without
family" and between the ages of 45 and 55. The doctors were promised an
$8,000 a month salary, and potentially cars and homes, though it is
unclear where the money for such a project will come from. For
comparison, Cuba made headlines last May when it announced it would
increase medical salaries to a whopping $67 a month.
Nonetheless, west Africa's medical infrastructure, already barely
functional before the outbreak, is so devastated that Sierra Leone
welcomed the Cuban doctors with open arms. "It is when we have fearless
people on the frontline to confront Ebola that is so dangerous that you
will be able to win the war," President Ernest Koroma said, thanking the
doctors who volunteered upon their arrival in Freetown.

Source: Cuban Government Bans Doctors Fighting Ebola in Africa from
Returning if They Get Sick -
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/10/16/Cuban-Government-Bans-Doctors-Fighting-Ebola-in-Africa-from-Returning-if-They-Get-Sick