Health News from Cuba

First Medical Students Arrive
from Central America

Havana--By early March, the first 97 Nicaraguan pre-med students destined for the Latin American Medical School were settling in at their dormitories here. This group will join another 140 from Nicaragua, 350 from Honduras and 350 from Guatemala, in the Schools first class of Central American physicians. All the students have received a full scholarship from the Cuban government, as part of its comprehensive assistance program after Hurricanes Mitch and Georges devastated Central American and Caribbean countries, leaving 26,000 dead and 2.4 million homeless. The students were rigorously selected in their home countries: in Nicaragua, one of every ten applicants was selected. In Honduras, from among applicants who were prioritized by their individual potential, but also by the areas of the country with the highest poverty rates. Because one prerequisite prevails for all these students: their commitment to return to their homes and serve patients in their communities. Cuba has offered a total of 5,500 scholarships over the next decade to medical students from the hurricane-ravaged territories.

In announcing the government program, President Fidel Castro noted that "a hurricane worse than Mitch is causing terrible human suffering (in the region)", referring to the high rates of infant mortality and infectious diseases in the Central American nations. The under-five mortality rate stands at 54 per 1,000 live births: if that were reduced to 20, note Cuban health authorities, that would mean saving the lives of 30,000 children every year—three times more than those children who lost their lives from Mitch.

FYI

Currently, 3600 Cuban medical specialists and technicians serve in 80 countries. Since 1963, when the first Cuban medical brigades traveled to Algeria, 115,000 health professionals have served abroad—overwhelmingly in other Third World countries.

The Cuban Medical Brigade that served in the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Georges saw 5,000 patients in 47 days, participated in 180 births, and performed 122 surgeries. A total of 137 Cuban health professionals also treated patients in the remotest areas of Haiti.

Some 500 Cuban health workers are now in Central America, and 400 in South Africa (where 25 Cuban medical professors also teach at the Transkei School of Medicine).

Some 2,000 Cuban health professionals are expected to serve in Central America for an "unlimited time"—chosen from among 25,000 volunteers. The first emergency brigades left for the region days after Hurricane Mitch ravaged some of the poorest lands of the Americas, and just weeks after Cuba sent assistance to Haiti and the Dominican Republic as they struggled to recover from Hurricane Georges. The Cuban health workers have been willing to trudge along the most difficult terrain to get to small villages and outposts, traveling on foot or by mule often sleeping in hammocks when floods had taken every structure in sight.

These are places not found on any map: Wamcursirti, Mosquitia, Honduras; San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua; La Tinta, Guatemala.

San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua sits at the end of a rocky, hours-long uphill path, a site nearly washed away by floodwaters, leaving thousands of inhabitants homeless. Recalls María Salomé, a Cuban nurse: "Here, one of the first patients I saw was a 37-day-old baby who could not have weighed more than three pounds. She was suffering from acute dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea. I couldn't find a vein anywhere, finally I did, in her head. We barely managed to save her life."

"Very poor indigenous people live in the entire region, one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Mitch," wrote the health workers of Emergency Medical Brigade Six from La Tinta, Guatemala. "So we went to work, trying to alleviate their suffering and stem the loss of life from the infections that erupt in the aftermath of such a natural disaster. When we arrived, we found a hospital that was built 15 years ago. Its equipment was adequate enough, but the hospital doors were closed: the place was simply too remote, and there were no health professionals here. Since we managed to get things up and running, some 200 people come to see us every day...and we've received encouraging response to our efforts at preventive medicine as well...".

In Tegucigalpa, Monseñor Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Madariaga said "the most beautiful thing the Cubans do is to stand beside the poor. I admire that." In Jeremie, Haiti, a few weeks earlier, Bishop Willy Romelus offered to enlist "all the priests and nuns in my diocese" as volunteers to assist the Cuban health brigadistas.

The presence of USAID and US military in the same areas as the Cuban doctors made for a curious kind of cooperation, as US helicopters ferried Cuban health workers in and out of Central American flood zones to evacuate and treat cholera patients. Jordi Escoda, a Spanish student working in one of the remote Honduran churches, described his surprise: "A U.S. military helicopter swooped down over us, and the soldiers wanted to know if this was Wampusirpi. When we shouted yes over the roar, they opened the door and to our complete surprise, Cuban doctors hit the ground. So, I said to myself, well, well."

Other cooperation was not so unexpected: as early as November of last year, Abel Matutes, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain announced his country would contribute a portion of the $200 million in medicines and medical supplies needed to support the Cuban doctors in Central America. Spain also offered 31 million in fresh credits to Nicaragua; and France joined Cuba in canceling Nicaragua's foreign debt—for Cuba, itself strapped for hard currency, this meant forgiving $50 million in loans.

norma In Nicaragua!
Dr. Norma Martínez, MEDICC Coordinator at the Pinar del Río Medical School, is in Nicaragua heading one of the medical teams assisting victims of Hurricane Mitch. As soon as we're able to make contact with her, we'll keep you posted on her work and bring you reflections on her experience there.

But by far, Cuba's greatest contribution to improving the health picture in Central America and the Caribbean is bound to be the massive graduation of physicians from the Latin American School of Medicine just outside Havana—professionals trained to serve the underserved. Students who hold out promise for their countries and their people.