Cuba has trained over 8,000 physicians from 54 nations
News from Cuba | Tuesday, 17 August 2010
By Miguel Jose Maury for the Cuban News Agency
More than 8,500 youngsters from 54 nations, including the United States, have been trained in Cuba by way of the project of Havana’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM) in its six graduations.
Dr. Juan Carrizo, Rector of the ELAM, told ACN that, from that total, 1,400 new physicians from over 40 countries graduated in 2010.
These youngsters will contribute to improve the health situation of their respective peoples in Latin America and other latitudes, thus making the premise that a better world is possible a reality.
Carrizo praised the noble idea of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, who, since the early days of the revolutionary process saw the need of training human resources as the only way of developing the nation, and recalled Fidel’s phrase when he said: Cuba will be a country of men of science."
At present the island has almost 75,000 physicians, thus turning Cuba into the country with the largest amount of physicians per inhabitant -one per every 150.
More than 200,000 are currently studying Medicine, 24,000 from other nations and 25,000 being trained abroad with Cuban professors, announced the Rector of the ELAM.
The idea of this project was conceived by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro as a response to the damages caused by hurricanes George and Mitch, which devastated Central America at the end of 1998.
The project, the only one of its kind in the world, and that has been expanded to all of the island’s medical universities, includes a high level of scientific, humanist and ethical training as well as of solidarity, which allows graduates to be at the service of sectors in need in their respective countries, asserted Carrizo.
