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ISSN 1527-3172 (Electronic)

2020, Number 2

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MEDICC Review 2020; 22 (2)

Global Collaboration in Times of COVID-19: Cuba’s Emergency Medical Contingent

Gorry C

Language: English
References: 14
Page: 64-66
PDF size: 118.35 Kb.


Text Extraction

The days are long and arduous, with endless patients to attend, often in a foreign language, always on foreign shores. Far from family and the familiar.
Sleep is fi tful at best for health professionals serving in emergency situations—when sickness obeys no clock and patients’ pain haunts even the quiet moments. The crisis scenario varies: post-earthquake, hurricane or tsunami; amid a cholera or Ebola epidemic. The countries vary: Haiti, Pakistan, Guatemala, Mozambique, Sierra Leone. What does not vary is the answer to the calls for help and Cuban professionals’ commitment to care for the most vulnerable. These aren’t armchair musings or a political pat on the back: they are my own conclusions after living for weeks in closequarter tents with Cuban doctors, nurses and biomedical engineers in post-earthquake Pakistan and Haiti, and witnessing their work.


REFERENCES

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  2. For a comprehensive overview of the history of Cuba’s international collaboration in health and medicine, including these bi-lateral agreements and the Henry Reeve Contingent, see MEDICC Rev. 2019 Oct;(21)4:83–92.

  3. TeleSur [Internet]. Caracas: TeleSur; c2020. News. Cuba is willing to send more medical brigades to the world; 2020 Apr 13 [cited 2020 Apr 17]; [about 2 screens]. Available at: https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/cuba-is-willing-to -send-more-medical-brigades-to-the-world-20200413-0001.html

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  5. TeleSur [Internet]. Caracas: TeleSur; c2020. Noticias Casi 1.200 profesionales cubanos de la salud luchan contra Covid-19 en el mundo; 2020 Apr 17 [cited 2020 Apr 18]; [about 2 screens]. Available at: https://www .telesurtv.net/news/cuba-profesionales-salud-lucha-mundial-coronavirus-pan demia-20200417-0029.html. Spanish.

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  9. Ministry of Public Health (CU). Parte del MINSAP al cierre del día 16 de marzo. Havana: Televisión Cubana; 2020 Apr 17. Spanish.

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