CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Fidel Castro Keeps in Contact with Cuban Doctors in Haiti

CUBA, December 27, 2010.- The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro spoke by telephone with members of the Cuban Medical Brigade who are in Haiti fighting the cholera outbreak.

Fidel called Cuban Health deputy Minister Marcia Cobas, who is in L’Estere, the town in the Artibonite department most affected by the pandemic, and asked to speak to some of the doctors that graduated from the Havana based Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)

Cobas has been instructed by Fidel to get in touch directly with all the members of the Henry Reeve medical brigade that are in Haiti to find out how they are dealing with the tough conditions they are working in.

The Minister has been making inquiries about their health, food, safety and how they are communicating with their families back in Cuba.

She also forwarded greetings from Fidel and Cuban President Raul Castro and presented them with a card signed by Fidel.

Cuban Doctor Elisa Ortiz Vázquez, who heads the 145 health professional brigade in Artibonite, told Fidel by phone they were proud of providing medical services wherever in the world they are needed.

The medical brigade has treated over 46, 000 Haitians that had contracted cholera, and have kept mortality at a low 0.59 percent.