Experience
in some countries
Belize
The presence of the Cuban medical teams
has made possible the establishment of
45 health centres, 37 of which are located
in rural areas, with family medical services
made available to some 100 000 persons.
Honduras
The provision of medical attention to
the people by the Cuban program covers
some twelve per cent of the population,
but in Departments such as Intibuca and
Mosquitia, where the complexities of geography
and economic limitations created special
conditions, the program covered eighty-five
per cent of the population.
In the Mosquitia Department of Honduras,
located in the Northeastern part of the
country, there was a forty per cent reduction
in infant mortality. According to official
data from the Honduran Ministry of Health
for 1998 the infant mortality rate was
92 for every 1000 live births. With the
presence of the Cuban medical teams infant
mortality at the end of the first semester
of the year 2000 had fallen to 46 for
1000 live births. That is to say, in a
year and a half of this collaboration
fifty-four infant lives were saved in
this Department.
In the Department of Santa Barbara, which
has a population of 300 000 inhabitants,
in six months of work by the Cuban medical
teams infant mortality was reduced by
fifteen per cent, from a rate of 60 per
1000 live births to 45 per 1000 live births.
At the request of the First Lady of the
Republic of Honduras and of the leaders
of the Tawahka people, considered by UNESCO
as an anthropological reserve of this
region, and which is in danger of extinction
as a consequence of serious depopulation,
a program of integral attention to these
communities has been initiated with the
project of protecting and of developing
this people.
The Cuban medical assistance program
has also been able, through the work of
electro- medical engineers, to carry out
repairs of a significant amount of medical
equipment. It is estimated that this has
resulted in savings of some 371 266 US
dollars on the part of the Honduran Ministry
of Health.
Guatemala
Cuban medical assistance in Guatemala
during the eighteen months of work has
put into place, together with the Ministry
of Health, in each of the departments
where they were present, a network of
primary care which has resulted in the
application of a program of Maternal and
Infant care and in the reduction of the
rate of infant mortality from 40 per 1000
live births to 18.5 live births.
In collaboration with the Guatemalan
Ministry of Health a teaching program
for family medicine has been implemented
in six Departments of the country.
Gambia
Emergency centres staffed by Cuban collaborators
have confirmed the reduction of infant
mortality rates by thirty-four per cent,
from a 1998 rate of 121 per 1000 live
births to 90 per 1000 live births. With
154 collaborators it has been possible
to cover ninety per cent of the population.
The creation of a small faculty in Gambia
has permitted the training of some twenty-two
young people in medicine. This effort
has enjoyed the support of the Gambian
authorities as well as of the World Health
Organization, which has made possible
the purchase of textbooks and computers
with a contribution of 35 thousand US
dollars.
Equatorial Guinea
In this African country, which had an
infant morality rate of 111 per 1000 live
births, the presence of 139 Cuban health
collaborators throughout the national
territory has provided medical attention
to eighty per cent of the population.
Work has begun on the founding of a School
of Medicine, with a team of Cuban professors,
in which thirty young Guineans will be
enrolled.
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