Cuban doctors to stay till needed, says minister (Pakistan quake relief)

[Mika]

Cuban doctors to stay till needed, says minister
http://www.dawn.com/2005/11/17/nat7.htm

SLAMABAD, Nov 16: Over 1,000 Cuban doctors are working in the quake-hit areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir since Oct 8 quake and providing medical assistance to victims. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba Felipe Perez Roque, who will lead his country in the Nov 19 conference, said at a press conference at a local hotel on Wednesday that 1,091 Cuban medical teams had provided medical assistance to over 50,000 patients in different areas.

Giving details of the assistance being provided by the Cuban medical teams, Mr Felipe said they had conducted 2,000 operations and working at 19 various field hospitals and refugees camps.
He said Cuba responded to Pakistan’s call for help immediately after the Oct 8 earthquake and the first medical team arrived in Islamabad on Oct 14.
He said the Cuban team would continue their work in the quake hit areas according to the needs of affected areas.

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He said Cuba had one of the best medical teams and 25,000 Cuban doctors were working in over 100 countries and providing medical care in different categories.
Mr Felipe said the Cuban government also provided scholarships to 18,000 students annually, which also included 12,000 in the medical profession.

Answering a question about working in the quake-hit areas along with American forces, the Cuban foreign minister said they were working shoulder to shoulder as it was a human cause but added, “bilateral relations between the US and Cuba are a very complex issue.”

Hooray for the good & kind people of Cuba!




Anti Iraq invasion protest in Havana, 03/03.

[Say_What]

1. Always there for people less fortunate than themselves...

the Cuban people are remarkable. So unlike their MiamiGusano cousins who think nothing of trying to starve their poorer island cousins. :puke:


"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today. Not one of them is Cuban."

[kurth]

2. They should bring them to America

The 45+ million uninsured wouldn't mind going to these very competent doctors without having to pay an arm and a leg, or have their wages garnished through the kindness of our health care system.

[PDJane]

3. They offered.......

assistance during Katrina. Bush didn't even extend the courtesy of a reply.

[Mika]

4. USA uninsured = four times Cuba's entire population..

.. all of whom have world class universal health care from pre birth to death.



_________________________________

The GOP's Axis of evil

Universal health care

Universal education

Democracy

_________________________________

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[plasticsundance]

5. Cuba's known for its help with victims of Chernobyl

It's called: Children of Chernobyl

They made the offer in the wake of the massive 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant blast and fire, which released 300 times the radiation emitted by Washington's atomic attack on Hiroshima in 1945.

Some 125,000 people have died from illness as a result of the catastrophe, Ukrainian health minister Andrei Serdyuk estimated in April 1995. At least 3 million suffer from some form of contamination-induced disease from the deadly plume of radioactive fallout spewed by the smoldering reactor.

Despite an original goal of meeting the health needs of "10,000 Chernobyl victims at a time," Navarro wrote, the collapse of favorable trade with the Soviet Union, economic belt-tightening in Cuba, and a shortage of funds in Ukraine to provide travel to Cuba have meant that "the program never had enough money to serve more than 2,000 children at one time."

Still, she reported, it has a medical staff of 350 currently hosting 236 young patients, bringing the overall number of children treated to 13,500. More than 2,000 adults have received attention as well.

With pride, Cuba treats Chernobyl children

<More>

HAVANA - Cuba has treated 18,153 children victims of the radiation fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, Ukraine's Health Minister Nykola Polischuk said on Tuesday.


For 15 years, children from Chernobyl have traveled to Cuba to be treated free of cost by Cuban doctors at the beach resort of Tarara, on the eastern outskirts of Havana.

The pale, sometimes bald, strikingly beautiful children can often be seen playing joyfully on the beach and splashing in the warm Caribbean sea.

They have been treated for cancers, kidney and thyroid ailments, digestive and nervous disorders, and the loss of hair and skin pigmentation.

Ukraine Thanks Cuba For Chernobyl Children Care

[robcon]

6. Castro reminds me of Mussolini

A tyrant who justified his despotism by keeping the trains running.

A tyrant who justifies his despotism with his healthcare system.

Both Castro and Mussolini use/used the same tactic: "look over there - don't look at the abrogation of human rights and political freedoms... look at the 'progress' I want to show you."

[K-W]

7. lol

Yep, the entire Cuban medical system is an elaborate Castro pr stunt.

[Say_What]

8. Pinochet, Hitler, and Stalin

all just love the Bushies for caring on where they left off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

look over there - don't look at the abrogation of human rights and political freedoms... look at the 'progress' I want to show you."

Sound just like "we're bringing Democracy to Iraq and those torturers are just a few *bad apples*... look at the progess we're making over there--only 2080 DEAD troops". 'muriKa, the shining light of *democracy*--NOT.

[Mika]

13. robcon, still at it with the same old gusano talking points I see

I see that you are still posting the 'Mussolini & his trains' crap. :puke:


Take a look at two prior examples of the responses to Robcon's exact same comparison..

In 2003
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=114&mesg_id=114&page=#328

Again in 2004
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=536800#539152


There are more repetitions of the same, but I won't bother readers with more unnecessary evidence of the ridiculous.



Such a comparison is beyond foolish. Repeating the absurd claims over and over is nothing more than puerile.


___

Take a look at what others (not Castro) are saying about Cuba's progress..

Learn from Cuba

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Great threads, Mika! That Mussolini thing's getting a little BLEAK, isn't

it? It's not for lack of trying, but it never did seem to fly, after all. Hard to believe! It was great scanning the posts again. Noticed poor DoNotRefill bought the farm. Sad. The gusano reactionaries who posture here lost a valuable ally.



A competant person would be more inclined to see similarity between Mussolini and Batista.

[Mika]

15. Yes, the old debunked talking points and pure crap keep reemerging..

.. and by the same intransigent posters yet.

Pathetic, really, to devalue the contribution that Cuban health care personnel make every day on a worldwide basis by drawing some sick parallel to Mussolini's trains.

As mentioned by Say_What, the Cubans are amazing in their compassionate and very real response for people in dire trouble and less fortunate than themselves. Its deranged (and wingnut rethuglican) to put down such real compassion and action.



Viva Cuba!

[Judi Lynn]

10. An editorial which ran soon after the earthquake in Pakistan:

Let the Cuban doctors come to Pakistan!



Rahimullah Yusufzai

A BBC TV report by Gavin Hewitt from Abbottabad highlighted the plight of overworked doctors as they try to cope with an unending flow of people injured in the October 8 earthquake. One of the younger surgeons said he had performed around 100 amputations on patients with gangrenous limbs. Senior surgeon Dr Sahibzada made a telling parting remark. He said instead of money (he used the word pound) there was a need for skilled doctors to undertake the mounting load of work at the Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad and other hospitals in the quake-affected region.

We must seek advise from people such as Dr Sahibzada while making contingency medical plans to cope with the tragedy that has struck Pakistan. He and his colleagues need helping hands to treat patients and perform surgeries. This reminds one of the generous offer made by President Fidel Castro of Cuba to send 200 doctors specialised in natural disasters and serious epidemics to help the earthquake affectees. The Cuban government has made it clear that it would bear all expenses relating to transportation of the doctors while requisite stock of medicines would also be sent to Pakistan.

It is learnt that the Pakistan government has conveyed to Cuba that it wants 50 doctors only. One hopes Islamabad would review its decision and let all 200 doctors come to Pakistan. We need many more doctors, nurses and paramedics in view of the unprecedented scale of the death and destruction wrought by the earthquake. Hundreds of injured people are flocking to hospitals in Azad Kashmir, Mansehra, Battagram, Abbottabad, Dassu, Swat, Peshawar and even Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Lahore. A UN report said 1,000 hospitals, mostly small ones, in Pakistan have been destroyed in the earthquake, prompting the government to make an urgent appeal to the international community for field hospitals, antibiotics, anti-typhoid medicines, fracture treatment kits, and surgical equipment.

One is sure the Cubans would be able to contribute a lot toward meeting this need. Their doctors have served in Third World countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia and have done commendable work to earn the affection of their patients and the gratitude of numerous communities and governments. They also possess experience in working in tough conditions and dealing with natural disasters and epidemics. The Cubans are best suited to working in conditions prevailing in poor developing countries such as Pakistan.
(snip/...)

The writer is an executive editor of The News in Peshawar

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2005-daily/15-10-2005/oped/o6.htm

Mika, love that photo of the Iraq invasion protest from the "oppressed" people of Cuba. Nothing binds a people closer than a common threat from murderous idiots, I'm sure.

[Midwest_Doc]

11. Cuba Has A Superb Health care System

The Cuban people enjoy one of the best health care systems in the Western Hemisphere. The health care of children surpasses any nation that I know, including the United States. It's amazing what can be accomplished with limited resources.

Yes, I have first-hand knowledge.

[Angry Girl]

12. And some of the most amazing music on Earth!

URGENT! Timing is critical to save earthquake victims before winter!