Fact Sheet: Cuban Medical Cooperation with Haiti

Untitled Document

Contact: Diane Appelbaum, CNS, MS
             510 350-3055
             dappelbaum@mediccglobal.org

CURRENT AID/TRAINING

Cuban medical teams (344 health professionals) staff public health centers and hospitals in 127 communities across the country, working in Haiti since 1999; the first 30 of a larger disaster-relief contingent arrived in Haiti January 13, the day after the quake. For current figures of Cuban and Cuban-trained medical personnel in Haiti, see MEDICC Updates.
Cuban and Cuban-trained disaster-relief specialists belong to the ‘Henry Reeve Team Contingent of Medical Specialists in Disasters & Epidemics’ (named after a decorated Brooklyn-born US soldier who fought in Cuba’s first war of independence). Team was created to send to New Orleans after Katrina, but rebuffed by Bush administration. See MEDICC Review article.

550 Haitian doctors have graduated from Latin American Medical School in Cuba (2005-2009). Over 400 are back at work in Haiti with Cuban doctors, in public health (public hospitals and clinics across the country).

567 Haitian medical students now study in Cuba at Latin American Medical School.

COMPOSITION, RESULTS OF CUBAN MEDICAL COOPERATION

344 Cuban health professionals on longterm assignment in Haiti, which usually lasts two years. Plus 30 more sent day after earthquake. Over half of these are physicians (52%), and are working in all 10 Haitian departments. Those with most Cuban medical personnel are: Artibonite (50) ; Grand-Anse (40) ; Ouest (where Port-au-Prince is, 39) ; Sud (40) ; and Centre (32).
The longterm medical teams staff PUBLIC hospitals and small clinics, working within Haitian public health system with Haitian health workers.

Medical cooperation also includes Vision Restoration Program (‘Operacion Milagro’). 44,100 Haitians have been operated on by Cuban surgeons for cataracts, glaucoma and pterigion (2006 through Oct. 31, 2009). See MEDICC Review article.

Cuban medical teams in Haiti have seen 14.6 million cases since 1999, 4.4 million pediatric cases. Performed 231,000 surgeries; delivered 112,000 babies.

TRAINING OF HAITIAN MEDICAL STUDENTS IN CUBA

550 Haitian doctors have graduated from Latin American Medical School in Cuba (2005-2009). Of these, 251 have done a residency in Cuba in family medicine and another 47 are now enrolled in second specialties in Cuba.
567 Haitian medical students now study in Cuba at Latin American Medical School. Another 66 will graduate in 2010; over 100 more in 2011).
Latin American Medical School scholarships cover six years of medical training (bridging course and Spanish language, basic sciences and clinical curriculum), including full room and board. Scholarships provided by Cuban government according to bilateral government agreements.

MORE BACKGROUND

First group of Haitian students at Latin American Medical School, Havana, in May 1999
First Cuban medical teams arrived in Haiti Dec, 1998, after Hurricane Georges
Formal bilateral agreement in health cooperation signed November 1998
Currently studying in Cuba: some 24,000 international medical students and 29,000 Cuban medical students.
Cuban medical teams now posted abroad: 35,000 health professionals in 70 countries.
First Cuban medical teams dispatched in 1960 for earthquake relief in Chile, first long-term team to Algeria in 1963. See article in MEDICC Review for more details on this.

January 15, 2009
Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC)