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Belfast Telegraph Article Praises Cuban Doctors’ Work in Haiti

UK, December 27, 2010.-  A report in the Belfast edition of the UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph today featured an article by Nina Lakhami titled “Cuba’s Doctors are the backbone of the Fight against Cholera in Haiti.”

The journalist describes them as “the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America's doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate”.

Lakhami reports that a medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans is operating all over earthquake-torn and cholera-infected Haiti, as part of Fidel Castro's international medical mission.

The main gist of the article is that “observers of the Haiti earthquake could be forgiven for thinking international aid agencies were alone in tackling the devastation that killed 250,000 people and left nearly 1.5 million homeless.

In fact, Cuban healthcare workers have been in Haiti since 1998, so when the earthquake struck the 350-strong team jumped into action. And amid the fanfare and publicity surrounding the arrival of help from the US and the UK, hundreds more Cuban doctors, nurses and therapists arrived with barely a mention.

Most countries were gone within two months, again leaving the Cubans and Médecins Sans Frontières as the principal healthcare providers for the impoverished Caribbean island.

The report in the Telegraph quotes figures released last week that show that Cuban medical personnel, working in 40 centres across Haiti, have treated more than 30,000 cholera patients since October.

They are the largest foreign contingent, treating around 40 per cent of all cholera patients.

Another batch of medics from the Cuban Henry Reeve Brigade, a disaster and emergency specialist team, arrived recently as it became clear that Haiti was struggling to cope with the epidemic that has already killed hundreds.

John Kirk, a professor of Latin American studies at Dalhousie University in Canada who researches Cuba's international medical teams says in the article: "Cuba's contribution in Haiti is like the world's greatest secret.

They are barely mentioned, even though they are doing much of the heavy lifting."  (Cubaminrex-RHC)