Cuba dispatches two new medical brigades to Africa

Havana, Oct 21 (IANS/EFE) Cuban President Raul Castro has announced that two health brigades from the island will be dispatched to Liberia and Guinea Conakry this week to collaborate in the fight against the Ebola virus disease epidemic.

The Cuban leader made the announcement Monday at the inauguration of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) summit in Havana to coordinate efforts to combat and halt the spread of the disease.

Cuba will send Tuesday 53 healthcare workers to Liberia and 38 to Guinea Conakry, Cuban Health Minister Roberto Morales said at the ALBA meeting.

In Sierra Leone, one of the African nations that has been most severely affected by Ebola, a group of 165 Cuban health professionals has been treating Ebola patients since early October.

Castro said in his inaugural address to the summit that Ebola was an "immense" challenge for humanity and Havana was ready to work "shoulder to shoulder" with all nations, including the US, in the fight against the disease.

"I am convinced that if this threat is not halted and resolved in West Africa with an immediate... international response... it could become one of the most serious pandemics in the history of humanity," said Castro.

More than 76,000 Cuban health professionals are working in 39 countries around the world, with 45,952 of them being stationed in 25 Latin American and Caribbean nations, according to figures provided by the Cuban president.

There are more than 4,000 Cuban healthcare workers posted in 32 African nations at present.

--IANS/EFE

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