[News] Doctors Urge U.S. to Accept Cuba's Offer of Doctors

[Anti-Imperialist News]

MEDICAL EDUCATION COOPERATION WITH CUBA (MEDICC)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Diane Appelbaum, RN, NP, MS
US Director, MEDICC
(678) 904-8090 <http://www.medicc.org>www.medicc.org

DOCTORS URGE U.S. TO ACCEPT CUBA'S OFFER
OF 1586 DISASTER-TRAINED DOCTORS TO STOP KATRINA EPIDEMICS

Atlanta, September 7, 2005. A prominent U.S. medical group voiced
'deep concern' over delays in health care and epidemic prevention
reaching Katrina victims, and urged U.S. authorities to accept Cuba's
offer of 1586 disaster-trained physicians to prevent a 'second wave
of sickness and death'.

Latest reports indicate the U.S. State Department is backing away
from the offer, implying they are not needed.

"Up to this point, there been a clear need for more medical help for
Katrina victims," said Peter Bourne, MD, Chairman of MEDICC and
former special adviser on health in the Carter White House and former
assistant secretary general at the United Nations . "The Cuban
physicians are accustomed to working in difficult third-world
conditions without the resources and supplies most of us are
accustomed to. Since they are just an hour away, it is a shame that
they have not been allowed to join our committed medical corps
already."

He is joined by other physicians, medical educators, international
health experts and a former U.S. surgeon general associated with
MEDICC, Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba. From 1998 through
2004, MEDICC provided medical electives in Cuba for nearly 1000
students and faculty from 118 U.S. medical, public health and nursing
schools.

"Cuba has been recognized by the UN, Oxfam and other international
organizations as a leader in disaster response, expertise that could
be saving lives now," said William Keck, MD, former long-time
director of the Akron, Ohio Department of Public Health..

A 2004 Oxfam Report, Weathering the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction
from Cuba, states that there are real lessons to be learned from Cuba
on how to safeguard lives during extreme natural disasters, including
getting medical attention to vulnerable populations. The report can
be found at <http://www.oxfamamerica.org/cuba>www.oxfamamerica.org/cuba.

On Tuesday, August 30, Cuba first offered U.S. authorities hurricane
relief in the form of 1100 disaster-trained bilingual physicians,
each equipped with 52-pound pound backpacks of medical supplies,
including rehydration therapy, insulin, anti-hypertensives, and
medications for systemic and topical infections.

On Saturday, September 3, Cuba increased the offer to 1586 doctors,
ready for immediate deployment and prepared to stay as long as
necessary to help wherever needed. A Cuban spokesperson said that as
of today there has been no official response from the U.S.
government.

Cuban disaster relief experience spans 45 years, mainly in hurricanes
faced by the Caribbean island and in coping with disasters confronted
by other developing countries. Another nearly 25,000 Cuban health
professionals provide longer-term health care services in 68
countries, under government-to-government agreements.

Cuba trains 10,500 medical students from 27 countries at its Latin
American Medical School- 65 of them from poor and minority
communities in the USA. (See The New England Journal of Medicine,
2004; 351:2680-82.)

"What an irony that the first U.S. MD to graduate from the school
this August is a young African American from New Orleans," said Diane
Appelbaum, RN, NP, MS. "He just passed the U.S. medical boards and is
eager to fulfill the commitment he made in exchange for his free
education from Cuba to serve the very poverty-stricken areas now
devastated."

For additional first-hand reports and interviews from Cuba, please
see MEDICC's on-line journal, MEDICC Review at 
<http://www.medicc.org>www.medicc.org ,
Archives, Vol VI, No. 3, 2004 Disaster Management in Cuba: Reducing
the Risk.

MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba) is a non-profit
organization based in Atlanta. MEDICC is committed to maintaining
institutional and educational links between the U.S. and Cuban
medical communities. MEDICC publishes the English-language journal
MEDICC Review, reporting on Cuba's medical and public health
programs, available at <http://www.medicc.org>www.medicc.org.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050908/c056eaee/attachment.htm>