…thousands more volunteer to help
By Joseph Lamin Kamara
Head of all Cuban medical teams has said that their government has resolved and committed its efforts to combating the Ebola virus disease that has claimed over 600 lives since May this year.
Dr. Jorge Delgado Bustillo told a ceremony, welcoming some 165 Cuban medics at the Miatta Conference Hall in Freetown, that more than 10,000 doctors and nurses were ready, three days after their government asked for volunteers to help Sierra Leone tackle the epidemic.
He said their government and the World Health Organisation had had a special agreement to help eradicate Ebola in West Africa, adding that apart from that Cuban government had built a mutual relation with the Sierra Leone since 1959.
“We have been committed to that relationship ever since,” said the Cuban doctor. “We are currently training Cuban doctors with high qualification, all of them are volunteers,” he said, adding that the 63 doctors and 102 nurses already in country were coming to Sierra Leone for the first time.
He however said that some of them had worked in other African countries and were now in Sierra Leone for a six-month period, adding that the Cuban government had sent a brigade of 23 medical personnel three years ago and some of them were working across the country.
Orlando O’Farrill Martinez, a Cuban state registered nurse, said: “I am here because I’d like to save lives of people in this country”, adding that they were afraid that Ebola would spread across the world.
“My family was worried because they felt I was coming to fight a war,” said Martinez, adding “my wife told me I was crazy when I told her I was coming.” He however said that his wife had ended up appreciating his decision to come.
Martinez said “I assure you, we are going to combat the Ebola disease. I love helping people, I am happy to be here.”
Roberto Ponce De Leon, another Cuban nurse said his family had had mixed feelings about his coming and noted that Cuban people knew Sierra Leone needed help and so his family was happy that he came.
Cuban ambassador to Sierra Leone, Jorge Lefebvre, said he had arrived in Sierra Leone ten days before the rest of the team and had since been happy. He said Ebola was a threat not only to Sierra Leone and Africa but to the entire world.
“No country has the amount of resources it takes to combat Ebola. That is why the Cuban government responded to the international call of the president of Sierra Leone,” he said argued, adding that “the fight against Ebola is not only Sierra Leonean, but also Cuban.”
AmbassadorLefebvre said that Cuba had over 2000 medical personnel in 32 countries and another 50 medical doctors would be sent to Liberia to help in the fight against Ebola there. He said Ebola could be eradicated only with medical resources, adding that the former Cuban president Fidel Castro was very happy for his country to send a medical team to Sierra Leone.
WHO representative in Sierra Leone, Dr. Daniel Kertez, thanked the team for their intervention. He said the Cuban medical team had come to Sierra Leone “under a unique relationship between WHO and Cuba, adding that “the Ebola outbreak had exerted enormous pressure on our health care facilities.”
Sierra Leone’s minister of health, Abubakarr Fofanah, thanked and welcomed the team. He said that was not the first medical team the Cuban government had sent to the country, but the largest so far.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” he said, adding that Ebola broke out in Sierra Leone at a time when the world had rated the country’s economy as one of the fastest. The minister said Sierra Leone or any country did not bring Ebola upon itself.
“Please accept Ebola survivors and integrate them into your communities,” Fofanah urged Sierra Leoneans.
Director of communications in the ministry of health,SidiYaya Tunis, said while other countries were attempting to isolate Sierra Leone, “we have friends who can help us.” He said China had also sent 59 medical personnel and was procuring additional mobile labs after establishing one in the country.
(C) Politico 09/10/14
