Cuban Doctors Saving Thousands in Zimbabwe

HAVANA, Cuba. The work of Cuban health professionals making their contribution in Zimbabwe has saved more than 300,000 lives in this African country since 1998.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, Dr. Emiliano Diez Martinez, head of the Cuban medical brigade, said that in the last 11 years 700 Cuban health professionals have treated more than eight million patients in Zimbabwe.

Diez Martinez added that Cuba's internationalist cooperation in Zimbabwe began in the early 1980s and continued in 1998 as part of an Integral Health Program. During this time, Cuban doctors have performed 200,000 surgeries in the last ten years.

Currently, there are 118 Cuban health professionals in Zimbabwe, including specialists in Integral General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Gynecology and Obstetrics.

He noted that the Cubans are spread out in the country's 11 provinces and in certain occasions, such as in 2008, they have nearly completely assumed the medical attention of the national health system.

(Encomiable labor de los médicos cubanos en Zimbabwe)