Cuba's Global Medical Outreach – a news chronology

(From stories compiled by FOCAL, the Canadian Foundation for the Americas)

2006

January 24: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage visited Santa Cruz de la Sierra's Hospital for Children to officially donate medical equipment to its intensive care room. The Cuban vice president recalled the recent signing of bilateral agreements during Morales´ visit to Cuba in December. The agreements signed by Evo Morales and Fidel Castro include 5,000 free scholarships for Bolivian students to study medicine in Cuba. During his visit to Santa Cruz, Lage also met with 30 Cuban specialists and 25 Bolivian physicians recently graduated in Havana that work at the National Ophthalmology Institute, as part of "Operation Miracle" to restore vision to hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Caribbean people. (Prensa Latina, 24/1/06)

February 3: Members of the Cuban medical brigade who have gone to Bolivia to help the victims of the heavy rains left for the affected areas to initiate their labors. The leader of the group, Daniel Posadas, informed the press that 140 professionals are to be distributed in a total of 47 towns in Santa Cruz province. At least two doctors will go to each of the communities and larger groups have been formed for more populated areas. Each brigadista will take two backpacks with 13 kilograms of medicines and work materials, he explained, while highlighting the warm welcome they have received from the Bolivians. The Cuban professionals arrived in Santa Cruz in eastern Bolivia, with Luis Felipe Vázquez, the Cuban ambassador to Bolivia, and were received by María Luisa Ramos, deputy minister of International Economic Relations, and Santa Cruz City Councilor Oswaldo Pérez from the governing Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). (Granma International, 3/2/06)

February 5: Cuba will grant nearly 1,000 scholarships to Guyanese students during the next five years, set up an eye care clinic and send 20 doctors to work for free in Guyana, officials said. The 965 scholarships would mostly be given to medical students, said Guyana's presidential spokesman Robert Persuad. The students would begin studying in Cuba in September, he said. "We will see the benefits of this down the road, in about six to seven years when the doctors start to return," Persuad said. The announcement comes just days after Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo traveled to Cuba, where he and Fidel Castro discussed new programs to provide Cuban health care assistance to Guyana. (AP, 5/2/06)

February 8: The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador informed that another group of people travelled to Cuba to undergo eye surgery under the "Operation Miracle" program. This is the fourth group of Salvadorans that have gone to Havana, bringing to 185 the number of those who have undergone sight correction surgery in the framework of a program carried out by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela in Latin America. (Notimex, 8/2/06)

February 13: Pakistani victims of the devastating October 8 quake arrived in Cuba to end a rehabilitation treatment started at field hospitals, Granma newspaper reported. The group, made up of six children, two girls and six men, will received their prostheses in the island. Meanwhile, a specialized workshop is being stationed at a Cuban medical facility in the Pakistani village of Abbottabad to expand care for more people. (Prensa Latina, 13/2/06)

February 20: Over 20,000 Ecuadorians will benefit from the Operation Miracle during 2006, according to statements made by Venezuelan Ambassador to Quito, Oscar Navas. Cuba and Venezuela are planning to offer that service to six million Latin American patients in ten years, Navas said. (EFE, 20/2/06)

February 23: Bolivia's President Evo Morales thanked Cuba for its solidarity with his country at a meeting with Cuban physicians who attended a ceremony for victims of last January's flooding rainfalls. During the meeting with representatives of the Cuban medical team, the Bolivian head of state expressed his firm friendship with the island. "We could never pay for the support given by the Cuban government and people," said Morales in the gathering held at the residence of the Cuban ambassador, alluding to the medical service provided by the doctors. At same time Morales thanked Cuba for the scholarships to study medicine granted to thousands of Bolivian students, as well as for Operation Miracle, a project that treats Bolivian low-income patients with eye afflictions. (Prensa Latina, 23/2/06)

February 24: The Cuban medical staff serving in Pakistan has assisted, up to date, more than a million patients, at least half women, Granma daily published. According to Doctor Juan Carlos Dupuy, chief of Henry Reeve International Medical Contingent, 439,894 people have been cared for at field hospitals, including 10,920 operations and over 5,000 admissions. Dupuy said that Cuban doctors have satisfactory communication with the people, especially with victims of the devastating October 8 quake. He also highlighted the support of the Pakistani Army to the doctors and nurses working in that country. The Caribbean group is currently made up of 2,386 professionals, including doctors, paramedics plus support staff. (Prensa Latina, 24/2/06)

March 11: Cooperation in healthcare is one of Cuba's main foreign goals, and "we have the human capital, willpower and wish to cooperate with all the peoples in the world", Fidel Castro said. In the closing speech of the 9th International Seminar on Primary Health Care, the Cuban leader referred to thousands of Cuban doctors who are helping poor people and victims of natural disasters worldwide. Fidel Castro highlighted Cuba's breakthroughs in rehabilitation and physiotherapy, as he recalled the first family doctors trained 20 years ago. He invited participants to hold the next Seminar on Primary Health Care in Havana in two years. (Prensa Latina, 11/3/06)

March 16: Two centers to treat ophthalmic disorders are near completion in Ciego de Avila, Cuba. The installations -to benefit Cuban patients as well- are now being equipped with technology that will be followed by future improvements to join the international program Operation Miracle. (Prensa Latina, 16/3/06)

March 18: Panamanian Health Minister Camilo Alleyne asserted his government is preparing to honourably host the Operation Miracle, a Cuba-Venezuela spearheaded project of free ophthalmology attention to poor Latin American communities. "Within one month and a half or two months we will open the venue of the Operation Miracle to contribute to the social integration of Latin America," stated Alleyne, who gave thanks for Cuba's healing of 917 Panamanian with eye afflictions since November 2005. (Prensa Latina, 18/3/06)

April 4: The building work on an ophthalmological clinic, fruit of Cuba's international collaboration, has started in the province of Djelfa, Algeria. The ground breaking ceremony of this project was attended by local authorities and the Cuban ambassador to that African country, Roberto Blanco Dominguez. (CAN, 4/4/06) 

April 6: In 2000, Cuban doctors working in the Honduran Integral Health Program began to work at the Proyecto Victoria rehabilitation center for addicts in Tegucigalpa. They have contributed with therapeutic techniques and research that has proven very beneficial for the institution. "You could say we were working in an empirical manner until the Cubans arrived," Rosa Aguilera, the project's director for the last seven years, said. The first Cuban at the center, Havana psychiatrist Octavio Garciga, wrote four important texts for the work of the program, which, put into a book, have also served as a guide for other Cubans who came later. The psychiatrist Victoria Gomez Sanchez, of the Joaquin Albarran Clinical-Surgical Hospital in Havana, speaks highly of the book, entitled "How to treat an addict and gang member." Victoria arrived in Honduras in 2005 and her commitment with the program was immediate. "The Cubans are teaching us a lesson on humanism: they always say yes when help is needed, no matter how difficult it might be," Noemi Perdomo, a Honduran psychologist working with the program, noted. (Granma, 6/4/06)

April 6: Jose Ramon Balaguer, Cuban Healthcare minister and member of the Communist Party Political Bureau, is on a working visit to the People's Republic of China where he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Gao Qiang. According to a report from Prensa Latina news agency, the meeting took place in a friendly and brotherly atmosphere, and both sides expressed their opinions on the excellent relations between the two nations. The ministers exchanged ideas aimed at strengthening and further developing bilateral cooperation in the area of healthcare. Balaguer also toured several healthcare facilities in the Chinese capital including the Center for Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases, before traveling on to Guangzhou, capital of the southeastern province of Guangdong. Later the Cuban official is scheduled to visit Sichuan and Qinghai. (Granma, 6/4/06)

April 9: Bolivian President Evo Morales expressed gratitude for Cuba's solidarity in the field of health, when announcing the opening of a new center for "Operation Miracle" in this country. During a tour of the central region of Cochabamba, Morales pointed out that this ophthalmologic center, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, was to open at the Villa Tunari Hospital, east of La Paz, "thanks to support from the Cuban government and people". (Prensa Latina, 10/4/06)

April 10: Cuba and China began a medical collaboration program this weekend, which will contribute to improve ophthalmologic attention to the population in regions of western China. With this objective, an association agreement for the creation of an ophthalmologic center was signed in Xining, Qinghai, by Dr. Tania Gonzalez Perez, representative of Cuban Medical Services Cubanos in China, and Dr, Chai Duo, director of Peoples Hospital 1 in Xining. Cuba will supply its experience in this branch of medicine, Cuban diplomatic sources said Monday, and will be staffed by Cuban and Chinese specialists, so that residents of Qinghai Province and other regions will be able to receive medical treatment. (Prensa Latina, 10/4/06)

April 11: The Government of Cuba donated an ophthalmology clinic to Bolivia. The clinic is located in the coca-producing region in the centre of the country, said Bolivian president Evo Morales in the Town of Tunari, Cochabamba, in the presence of the Cuban foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque. "These eye-surgery equipments do not even exist in other Bolivian clinics. Everything has been imported from Europe", emphasized Morales. He also announced that Cuba is setting up a similar clinic in another Bolivian city, to tend to those who need eye-surgery free of charge. (EFE, 11/4/06)

April 11: Uruguay's Public Health minister, Maria Julia Muñoz, arrived in Havana accompanied by 123 Uruguayans that will receive vision treatment in Cuba, in the framework of Operation Miracle. Thanks to Cuba through Operation Miracle, hundreds of Uruguayans are receiving invaluable assistance that will allow them to return to our country with recovered vision, said Muñoz on her arrival. (AFP, 11/4/06)

April 20: Cuba offered free ophthalmologic assistance to the Montserrat population, in the British Caribbean. Cuban professionals working in Antigua will visit Montserrat monthly to assist local patients. Those in need of surgeries or other advanced treatments will be sent to Cuba, Montserrat's minister of Health, Idabelle Meade, said. (AP, 20/4/06)

April 20: Minister of Health Sports, Youth Affairs and Carnival, John Maginley is heading a delegation to Cuba to discuss a number of programmes including medical assistance between Antigua & Barbuda and Cuba. Maginley will attend a welcome dinner where he will meet with the Cuban Minister of Health Dr. Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera. They will review the eye care programme and look at the continued health care services for the Cuban doctors and nurses who are working in Antigua & Barbuda. (Antigua Sun, 20/4/06)

May 8: A team of Cuban experts which is in Ghana to assist in the eradication of malaria through the use of Biolarvicides called on the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd). The team from the Labiofam Grupo Empresarial, a biological research and technological enterprise in Havana, Cuba, specializes in the production of vaccines for plants, animals and humans. Led by Mr Felix Quintanar Pulido, Vice President of Labiofam, they would explore the possibility of constructing a Labiofam plant, conduct a feasibility study and visit most endemic areas during their one-week stay. The Cuban experts would meet Ghanaian stakeholders, have a roadmap and sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of the project. (ANDnetwork, 8/5/06)

May 17: Cuban doctors deployed to Pakistan after last year's devastating earthquake concluded their aid mission to the country after treating 1.7 million patients, official media outlets reported. The work of the Cuban medical personnel is now being continued by 670 Pakistani specialists who are working in the locations where the Cuban field hospitals were set up, according to statements by Cuba's assistant foreign affairs minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla. Rodriguez Parrilla, who was on hand in Pakistan to see off the last Cuban medical brigade on its homeward flight to the Communist island, said that Havana's doctors had trained more than 700 Pakistani medical students and 32 nurses. (EFE, 17/5/06)

May 26: The governments of Laos and Cuba have entered into an agreement to continue cooperation in the health care sector from 2006 to 2010. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in Vientiane by Mr Chaleun Yearpaoher, President of the Laos-Cuba Friendship Association and Mr Pedro Luis Hildalgo Pardo, Deputy Minister for Health in Cuba. Under the agreement, Cuba will dispatch medical and healthcare experts, including heart specialists and obstetricians to help upgrade medical personnel in Laos. (KPL, 26/5/06)

May 30: Bolivian President Evo Morales is due to open in Escoma, on the border with Peru, the first of 20 top-technology hospitals donated by Cuba to Bolivia, the governmental headquarters reported. Armando Garrido, coordinator of the Cuban medical brigade in Bolivia, stated that the Aymara Hospital is provided with a medicinal gas system, labs with gasometry and fixed and portable ray-x equipment. The center, like the other 19, will have one intensive therapy room with four beds, as well as services of obstetrics, neonatology, digestive endoscopy and a fully-equipped operation room. Qualified Cuban staff and paramedics will work in the hospital and the donation also includes maintenance of medical equipment, medicine and materials, said Garrido. (Prensa Latina, 30/5/06)

June 3: A Cuban medical team arrived at Solo airport, on the Indonesian island of Java, to attend to the thousands of victims of a devastating earthquake. More than six thousand people were killed and tens of thousands have been injured. The team comprises of 135 health care professionals, among them hospital staff and specialist physicians, the majority of whom also took part in the aid to Pakistan after the October 8, 2005, earthquake. (Granma, 3/6/06)

June 3: More than 100 Nicaraguans with eye problems will travel to Cuba to undergo free surgery, said the special attorney for citizen participation, Reverend Sixto Ulloa. Ulloa said that eye surgeries performed on the Nicaraguans are part of the regional cooperation program promoted by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. (AP, 4/6/06)

June 5: Mali National Assembly President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita described as "fabulous" the Cuban medical cooperation benefiting his people. His official visit to the island responds to an invitation by his Cuban homologue, Ricardo Alarcon. "It is a sin and a sign of ingratitude not to recognize what has been done thanks to the Cuban doctors supporting the Malian people," said the congressman in his interview with Sergio Corrieri, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, (ICAP). (Prensa Latina, 5/6/06)

June 16: Jamaican Minister of Health, Horace Dalley expressed a high level of satisfaction about the quality of ophthalmology care being offered to Jamaican and other Caribbean patients participating in the Jamaica/Cuba Eye Care Project. However, he noted that there was need for greater collaboration between Jamaican and Cuban ophthalmologists to further enhance the programme. The Minister made these remarks in a news interview following visits to the University Hospital in Cienfuegos and the Pasacaballo Health facility, during his first day of an official visit to Cuba. The Minister is accompanied by a six-member delegation. (Government of Jamaica, 18/6/06)

June 16: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage attended the opening of a second eye clinic in Ecuador with Cuban staff and furnishings. The Cuban Vice President highlighted these centers´ smooth operations since their inauguration, which has included operating on 14,701 patients, including 401 in Latacunga, Cotopaxi province. Lage recalled that several hospitals have been opened in Latin America since Operation Miracle program was set in motion in 2004: Bolivia (6), Venezuela (1) and Ecuador (2). (Prensa Latina, 16/6/06)

July 20: Cuba donated four-million-US-dollars worth of modern medical equipment to Bolivia's hospitals, according to reports. Bolivia's Health Minister Nila Heredia, told Bolivian media that the donation was "state of the art in [terms of] what is needed to attend the patients," and thanked Fidel Castro for his solidarity. (Xinhua, 21/7/06)

July 20: The Bolivian Minister of Health, Nila Heredia, will face a disciplinary process that could culminate in the suspension of her professional license for allowing more than one thousand Cuban doctors to practice in the country, the Bolivian Medical College announced. The president of the Medical College, Fernando Arandia, said that the organization will also initiate legal proceedings to seek the annulment of a bilateral agreement signed early this year by virtue of which more than 1,000 Cuban doctors currently provide medical attention in Bolivia free of charge. (Reuters, 21/7/06)

July 21: Fidel Castro briefed the leaders of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) nations on Cuba's experiences in the areas of education, public health and in energy savings. Castro spoke as a special guest at the 30th Mercosur Summit held in the city of Cordoba, Argentina. Fidel Castro stressed the good results obtained with the application of the Cuban literacy program "Yo sí Puedo" (Yes, I can) in Venezuela, where 1.5 million people were taught how to read and write. The Cuban Head of State also underscored the results of the Operation Miracle free eye-surgery and treatment program launched by Havana and Caracas. (Granma, 21/7/06)

September 4: Botswana and Cuba signed a two-year agreement to cooperate on health matters. At the signing ceremony, the Botswana Minister of Health Sheila Tlou said that under the agreement Cuba will provide 166 professionals as volunteers to Botswana. She said that Botswana appreciates the technical assistance that it had from Cuba over the years. (Mmegi Online, 5/9/06)

September 4: A Cuban medical brigade working in Indonesia has successfully concluded its humanitarian mission and will shortly return to Cuba. According to reports by Cuban ambassador Jorge Leon Cruz, some 135 health professionals, among them hospital staff and specialists, has so far assisted more than 103,000 patients in tent hospitals, donated by the island's government. (Prensa Latina, 4/9/06)

September 6: Bolivian President Evo Morales met with Cuba's ailing Fidel Castro during a day trip to the island, state television reported. Morales told Castro that Bolivians sent their affection for the 80-year-old leader recovering from intestinal surgery though they don't think he is really sick, just "undergoing repairs," according to a report on the Cuban daily public affairs program Mesa Redonda. "Fidel thinks that Evo is an exceptional leader," the program's moderator Randy Alonso said, reading from a statement. In the two-hour meeting the leaders discussed Bolivia's assembly to rewrite the nation's constitution as well as Cuban literacy and medical programs in the South American country. There are currently more than 1,600 Cuban doctors in Bolivia who have treated 1.4 million patients, according to the report. The Bolivian leader, who arrived early in the day and left for home in the evening, was greeted at the airport by Raul Castro, acting president while his older brother recovers. Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque also were there. The three had lunch with Morales, the report said. (DPA, AP, 6/9/06)

September 21: A record number of Jamaican students received scholarships to Cuba this school year. Beginning in 1979 when three students, including current junior government ministers Donald Rhodd and Wykeham McNeill went to study in Cuba, this year's all-expenses paid scholarships include 70 medical students, expanded from five last year; 40 in nursing; 11 in sports and physical education; nine in engineering; and seven in other areas. Speaking at the farewell ceremony for the students at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Anthony Hylton, thanked the Cuban government, favorably contrasting the scholarships to the 'brain drain' of qualified Jamaicans absorbed by developed countries. Cuban Ambassador Gisela Garcia Rivera told her audience that the scholarships offered to students from developing countries - with 26,000 currently studying - were an important part of Cuban foreign policy. (Jamaican Gleaner, 21/9/06)

October 1: Twenty more hospitals equipped by Cuba will join a previous 20 supplied by the Cuban government to Bolivia this year, said Cuban Ambassador to Bolivia Rafael Dausa. The announcement was made by Dausa during the opening of a diagnosis center in San Cristobal, in the Bolivian southern department of Potosi, at which Bolivian President Evo Morales was also present. Dausa said equipments will be supplied soon, with the help of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which will also finance acquisition of 200,000 lenses for people learning to read and write by means of Cuban method "Yo Si Puedo." (Prensa Latina, 1/10/06)

October 6: Thunder Bay, Ontario, is providing some medical assistance of a different kind to a small centre in Cuba. Several shipments of obsolete medical equipment from the old Regional Hospital have already been sent to Cuba. But last week, a medical team, including two local orthopedic surgeons, also arrived to help teach surgical procedures. And the experience was so rewarding, they're already planning a return visit. The group of volunteers made the day for many people when they offered their materials and knowledge to hospital staff in Cuba. Dr. David Puskas and Dr. Tracy Wilson, led by Dr. Jerome Harvey, spent a week at the hospital in Placetas, Las Villas province, teaching the surgeons different techniques on performing surgery. The two Thunder Bay doctors demonstrated these techniques, while performing shoulder surgery and twelve knee scopes on patients at the Cuban hospital. Wilson says they didn't think twice about joining this organization to help the people of Placetas. (Thunder Bay's Source, 6/10/06)

October 9: "After two and a half years, the medical mission to Guatemala has been a very rich experience that has fostered human and revolutionary values," said doctor Yoandra Muro, who headed the Cuban medical brigade to that Central American nation. The first Cuban doctors arrived in Guatemala on the heels of the devastating passage of Hurricane Mitch through that country in 1998. At that time, a small medical team arrived at the southern Guatemalan port town of San Jose, while another group went to the town of La Tinta, a remote settlement in the northern department of Alta Verapaz. Today 350 Cuban medical specialists are offering assistance in 17 of Guatemala's 22 departments,  Dr. Muro told the press. (Prensa Latina, 9/10/06)

October 15: The Cuban government plans to build 20 more hospitals in Bolivia, Bolivian Health Minister Nila Heredia said. Havana, along with Venezuela, has been among the biggest providers of aid to Socialist President Evo Morales since he took office in January. As of September, Cuba had built and equipped 20 hospitals, most of them in rural areas. Cuba has also established seven eye clinics in the Andean nation under "Operation Miracle," a health-care initiative being carried out by Havana and Caracas. The program was initially launched by Cuba and later joined by Venezuela, and it provides free eye surgery, especially for cataracts, to the poor, with the goal of helping some 250,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean. The hospitals currently in operation have the equipment needed to provide diagnostic services, such as X-rays, electrocardiograms and lab tests, and are staffed with surgical and specialized personnel, the health minister said. Heredia told the press that 10 similar hospital would be set up in different municipalities, and 10 others would be established with lesser levels of equipment. Where necessary, the Cuban Medical Brigade, which has 1,681 members in Bolivia, will provide volunteers to staff the medical centers, Heredia said. (EFE, 15/10/06)

October 26: The Governor of Michoacan, Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas Batel, opened a new state-of-the-art ophthalmic center donated by Cuba to the local general hospital that will be able to treat thousands of patients free. Cuban Ambassador to Mexico Jorge Bolanos noted that 2,500 locals underwent eye surgery in Cuba, and it was decided to consolidate the surgical infrastructure within Mexico to continue treating the patients. (Prensa Latina, 26/10/06)

October 27: Cuba's expertise in preventive medicine and energy saving experiences are on the table as part of official contacts with Guatemala Vice President Eduardo Stein during his second day of visiting the island. Stein's agenda included meetings with Public Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer and Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia. The encounter with Balaguer will be used to tackle aspects of the medical collaboration and professional training, while that of Garcia is to learn more details of the government's program to save energy and substitute high-consumption equipment, denominated in Cuba the Energy Revolution. (Prensa Latina, 27/10/06)

November 23: The Cuban government announced a donation of four ophthalmological hospitals to Honduras. An agreement on this donation was signed by Hondura's Health Minister, Yeny Meza, and by the Cuban Ambassador to Tegucigalpa, Elías Alberto Polanco González.  According to the agreement, the clinics will be located in Tegucigalpa, in El Progreso —departament of Yoro—, Juticalpa —in Olancho— and San Marcos de Ocotepeque. (Notimex, 23/11/06)

December 8: China and Cuba have jointly built an ophthalmic hospital in northwest Qinghai Province, to help locals of the high-altitude province who suffer ophthalmic diseases. The Hospital Oftalmologico Amistad China-Cuba in Xining has a building area of 4,000 square meters, 80 beds, and 135 staff members, including 52 Cuban professionals. "This is the first cooperation project in ophthalmic area between China and Cuba," said Wang Xuan, vice mayor of Xining City, capital of Qinghai. The two countries have invested 39 million yuan (4.9 million US dollars) in the construction of the hospital. They planned a total investment of 60 million yuan (7.6 million US dollars) for the hospital. Under a 10-year cooperation term, Cuba will supply the hospital with equipment and experts, while the Chinese side provides space and other staff. (Xinhua, 8/12/06)