UPDATES: Cuban-Haitian Medical Teams in Haiti

February 2, 2010—Cuban and Cuban-trained Haitian doctors—already the largest contingent of medical relief workers in Haiti since the January 12th earthquake—are being joined by graduates of Cuba’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM) from a score of countries.  Among the first to arrive this week will be several US physicians who studied at ELAM.

Of the 938 health care providers in the teams on the ground thus far, 280 are young Haitian doctors, and at least 60 more are Haitian medical students enrolled at the school. Over the next few weeks, they will receive reinforcements of their peers in a number of Latin American, African and Caribbean countries.

Like the Cubans, they are planning to stay in Haiti to rebuild the public health system: “We’re working to provide comprehensive care over the long term,” said Dr. Carlos Alberto Garcia, one of the teams’ coordinators. He noted that the immediate need for surgeries for fractures and polytraumas has now given way to rehabilitation efforts, treatment of people with diarrhea and respiratory infections, and campaigns to prevent serious disease outbreaks in the aftermath of the quake.

The Henry Reeve Emergency Medical Contingent—as the Cuban-led teams are known, named after a US veteran of Cuba’s independence war against Spain—is now working in three hospitals, four field hospitals, five Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers (clinics) and numerous open-air sites in Port-au-Prince and throughout Haiti.  The latest field hospital was opened January 26 in Croix des Bouquets on the outskirts of the capital.

In addition, the contingent will open its ninth rehabilitation center this week in Port-au-Prince, staffed by nearly 70 Cuban physical therapists and rehab specialists, in addition to the Haitian medical personnel. Another 64 Cuban epidemiologists and nurses are working in teams with the Haitian medical students to provide health education, vector control and vaccinations in some 40 makeshift settlements around Port-au-Prince. 

“Post-quake epidemics are a real concern of course,” noted Dr. Garcia, reporting that the teams have thus far vaccinated some 20,000 Haitians and international volunteers with 400,000 tetanus vaccines donated by Cuba and additional vaccines donated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) against whooping cough, rubella, measles and diphtheria.

The Cuban-led contingent in numbers, through February 1, 2010:

FLASH: PAHO Director Visits Cuban Medical Team in Port-au-Prince

Cuban-Haitian Medical Teams in Haiti
A team of 64 environmental control specialists—including epidemiologists, vector control experts, and entomologists--arrived this morning in Port-au-Prince, who will work in several vector-control and fumigation brigades to prevent outbreaks of dengue, malaria and other illnesses.  They are joined in preventive efforts by 30 four-person teams of Cuban physicians and Haitian medical students from Cuba’s Latin American Medical School, who are in the field vaccinating against tetanus and providing health and hygiene public education. Some 400,000 doses of the vaccine were donated by Cuba.

Through January 22, the Cuban-Haitian teams--made up of Cuban health professionals, Cuban-trained Haitian physicians, and 5th-year Haitian medical students studying in Cuba—had treated over 20,000 patients and carried out 1,054 surgeries. In the next few days, Cuba is also expected to send physical therapists and nurses specializing in rehabilitation. Through January 22nd, over 4,000 patients treated by Cuban medical personnel suffered fractured limbs, and nearly 3,000 others suffered polytraumas.

In the capital of Port-au-Prince, the teams are currently working in three hospitals (Renaissance, OFATMA and La Paz University Hospital), as well as attending to patients in public parks and other outdoor locations.  On the capital’s outskirts, they have set up a field hospital in Leogane, and are also working in the towns of Arcahaie and Carrefour (where a second field hospital is being mounted), on the island of La Gonave, and in Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers (CDIs, new built with Venezuelan aid) in Grand Goave, Petit Goave and Thomazeau. In other departments, they have established a field hospital in the city of Jacmel, and are serving in CDIs and other health centers in Mirebalais, Anse-a-Veau, Raboteau, Aquin, Les Cayes, Cap-Haitien, Port de Paix, Nippes and Grande Anse. Days ago, the UN shipped some 1,500 patients to Grande Anse to alleviate saturation of Port-au-Prince facilities. In all, the Cuban-Haitian medical contingent is staffing 14 operating rooms with 16 surgical teams. See photos

PAHO Director Visits Cuban Medical Teams in Haiti
Dr. Mirta Roses, Director of the Pan American Health Organization, visited the Cuban medical contingent today in Port-au-Prince, praising the health professionals’ work in Haiti. “We were already aware of their organizational capacity, their experience in disaster management; and it has been an enormous advantage that they were already here (before the quake). They know the situation, the health ministry, the Haitian people and they were already working with PAHO.  Theirs is an enormous contribution.”

Dr. Roses visited the La Paz University Hospital, where a large contingent of Cuban and Cuban-trained Haitian doctors are working with specialists from dozens of countries, and where she also met with Dr. Yiliam Jimenez, head of the Cuban effort in Haiti. The PAHO director noted that organization and coordination is key to recovery, and warned that the many volunteers who are attempting to reach Haiti with no infrastructure in place can in fact become ‘displaced persons’ themselves, competing for food, water and logistical support intended for the Haitian people. She emphasized that needs will be changing over the next period, and the recovery effort must take this shift into account to be effective. See photos

Dr. Roses emphasized the need to renew programs against TB, HIV/AIDS, and malaria, and noted that vaccination campaigns are already being initiated to avoid major epidemics in the disaster which has already cost over 110,000 lives.

IN RELATED NEWS:

Cuba Proposes Long-term Multinational Medical Staffing for Haiti
Today, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez proposed to member governments of ALBA (Alianza Bolivariana para las Americas) that they permit medical students from their countries to form a multinational contingent with Cuban and Cuban-trained Haitian doctors to help staff the Haitian public health system, as it recovers from the January 12th earthquake. At a meeting of ALBA ministers in Caracas, he also proposed that ALBA resources be dedicated to building and rebuilding health facilities in Haiti, from primary care clinics to hospitals.

Cuban University Students Begin Blood Drive for Haiti
University student organizations throughout Cuba have begun a voluntary blood drive for Haiti, with some 50 donations a day reported at one University of Havana campus. Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health collects the donations and also tests them for safety before shipment.

January 20, 2010

• 60 Haitian medical studentsfrom Cuba’s Latin American Medical School arrived today in Port-au-Prince to buttress relief efforts by the Cuban medical team in Haiti. They are among 189 enrolled in 4th and 4th year expected to return of a total of 567 Haitian medical students in Cuba. Over 400 Cuban medical personnel are working in Haiti, another 400 Cuban-trained Haitian doctors. Includes 30 Cuban doctors sent January 13 and 38 physicians (Cuban and Haitian) who arrived January 16.

• Cuban and Cuban-trained medical personnel have treated over 11,000 victims of the January 12th earthquake. The Cuban government has sent 400,000 doses of tetanus vaccines for Haitian wounded. Sixteen operations have been performed in the field hospital set up yesterday (Jan. 19) by Cubans in Leoganes, one of the hardest-hit areas.

• In addition, they are now treating patients daily in Port-au-Prince parks and other open-air locations, as well as the following hospitals in the center of the city:

• La Paz University Hospital, where they have been joined by teams from Spain, Norway, Venezuela, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, and other countries. Includes workers from Colombia’s Red Cross and 10 nuns from the Dominican Republic’s Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.  Hospital has three operating rooms, working 24-hours a day.
• La Renaissance Hospital
• OFATMA (Office d'Assurance Accident du Travail, Maladie et Maternité) Social Security Hospital

• The teams are also seeing earthquake victims in the following sites :
• 6 municipalities (communes) on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince and eastern Ouest Department.
• 8 other health centers, including 4 Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers (clinics built with aid from Venezuela) in other Haitian departments.

In the last 48 hours the rush of patients was reported on the increase, and the UN has sent some 1500 patients to Grand Anse where other Cuban medical teams are working.

Before the quake, Cuban medical personnel were already working in 127 of 137 of the country’s municipalities (communes).

Sources: Agencia Cubana de Noticias, Granma, Juventud Rebelde.

CNN on Cuban Medical Team in Haiti
...a hospital which provides quality care for Haiti’s earthquake victims.
See video - Full transcript

Sarah Stephens in The Huffington Post
To increase help for Haiti, Obama should promotes U.S-Cuba cooperation
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