15 Dec MEDICC Applauds TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year: the Ebola Fighters-Cuban nurses and doctors among the brave
Oakland, Calif. December 12, 2014 —MEDICC applauded Time Magazine’s choice for Person of the Year 2014: the Ebola Fighters on the frontlines of stopping the epidemic in West Africa, including the 256-member Cuban medical team, the largest continent from any one country. The nurses and physicians are working under WHO auspices.
Dr. Pierre M. LaRamée, MEDICC Executive Director, noted, “This serves to recognize the extraordinary dedication and sacrifice of all the medical workers in West Africa and the volunteers who have joined them from around the world to combat Ebola. The risks of contracting Ebola have not prevented these heroes from serving and saving lives.”
Cuban Dr. Felix Baez is just one example of dedication in the face of daunting challenges. After contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone, he made a full recovery in a Swiss hospital. Now back home in Cuba, he says he wants to return to Sierra Leone to continue working with the Cuban team there.
Weak public health systems in West African countries have been overwhelmed by the epidemic that has infected 17,942 people and killed 6,388. Particularly affected have been local health workers themselves.
Track record of humanitarian medical cooperation
Cuba’s track record of offering disaster responders to other countries dates back six decades. Most recently, medical personnel has been dispatched to the Caribbean and Central America (1998 Hurricanes George and Mitch), Pakistan (2005 earthquake) and Haiti (2010 earthquake). Today, over 50,000 volunteers, nearly half physicians, serve in the island’s ongoing international medical cooperation program in 66 countries. Havana’s Latin American Medical School has also graduated nearly 25,000 doctors from over 120 countries, offering full scholarships to low-income students..
Connor Gorry, MEDICC Review Senior Editor, is the only US journalist to travel with Cuba’s specialized disaster and epidemic control medical team (known as the Henry Reeve Contingent). In 2005, she accompanied the Cuban brigade on their first mission, to post-quake Pakistan. In 2010, she was again embedded with the Henry Reeve Contingent in Port-au-Prince Haiti, providing coverage for MEDICC Review and MEDICC’s blog http://mediccglobal.wordpress.com.
“To see the Cuban humanitarian medical teams in action is to see international cooperation at its best,” said Gorry. “Besides their medical expertise, they bring a sense of duty and humility, which is reflected in the way they work with local medical teams and adapt to community customs.”
MEDICC has created an Ebola Emergency Fund to support the Cuban and international teams with medical supplies and equipment. Donations can be made at www.medicc.org and gifts will be matched by a generous foundation grant. For the latest on the Cuban teams fighting Ebola, please visit www.ebola.medicc.org
Since 1997, MEDICC has worked to enhance cooperation among the US, Cuban and global health communities aimed at better health outcomes and equity. MEDICC produced the feature film ¡Salud! and publishes the MEDLINE-indexed journal MEDICC Review. MEDICC supports research in Cuba by US health professionals, assists US students and graduates of Havana’s Latin American Medical School to return to US underserved communities, and organizes Community Partnerships for Health Equity to improve health care and access in communities such as South Los Angeles and Oakland, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; The Bronx, New York; and Milwaukee, Wisconson. See: www.medicc.org