Cuban Doctors Have Seen Four Million Patients in Nicaragua
News from Cuba | Monday, 29 August 2011
The Cuban Ernesto Che Guevara medical brigade working in Nicaragua since 2007 has offered more than four million consultations as part of a collaboration program, Prensa Latina reported.
Dr. Alfredo Rodriguez, head of the group, told PL that the Cuban doctors, at the request of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), will continue offering their help to low-income people in far-off areas.
The Cuban specialists are working in the poorest areas of Nicaragua such as Siuna, Bonanza, Puerto Cabeza, Waslala, Mulukuku, Laguna de Perlas, Bluefields and Kukrahill.
They are also providing their services in the Lenin Fonseca institution, in Managua and in the hospitals of Muelle de los Bueyes (Autonomous Region of the Southern Atlantic) and Waspan (Autonomous Region of the Northern Atlantic).
Rodriguez told PL that their work is not boiled down to giving consultations in health care centers, but includes home visits to local families.
Out of 172 Cuban specialists, 43 are participating in the Miracle Operation ophthalmologic program through which people with very poor or none eyesight due to cataracts or pterygium can undergo surgery at no costs.
Cuba also helps Nicaragua by providing medical training to more than 300 youngsters from that nation in under and post graduate programs, as part of the Latin American Medical School based in Havana.
For the FSLN, the Cuban help contributes to meeting the government's objective of restoring the Nicaraguan people's rights that were placed on a second level during 16 years of neo-liberalism.
