________________________________ Entire article on Counterpunch at http://www.counterpunch.org/kirk04012010.html
CounterPunch - April 1, 2010 One of the World's Best Kept Secrets Cuban Medical Aid to Haiti By EMILY J. KIRK and JOHN M. KIRK Media coverage of Cuban medical cooperation following the disastrous recent earthquake in Haiti was sparse indeed. International news reports usually described the Dominican Republic as being the first to provide assistance, while Fox News sang the praises of U.S. relief efforts in a report entitled "U.S. Spearheads Global Response to Haiti Earthquake"-a common theme of its extensive coverage. CNN also broadcast hundreds of reports, and in fact one focused on a Cuban doctor wearing a T-shirt with a large image of Che Guevara--and yet described him as a "Spanish doctor". In reality, however, Cuba's medical role had been extremely important-and had been present since 1998. ... By 2007, significant change had already been achieved throughout the country. It is worth noting that Cuban medical personnel were estimated to be caring for 75% of the population.[3] Studies by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) indicated clear improvements in the health profile since this extensive Cuban medical cooperation began. Improvements in Public Health in Haiti, 1999-2007[4] Health Indicator 1999 2007 Infant Mortality, per 1,000 live births 80 33 Child Mortality Under 5 per 1,000 135 59.4 Maternal Mortality per 100,000 live births 523 285 Life Expectancy (years) 54 61 Cuban medical personnel had clearly made a major difference to the national health profile since 1998, largely because of their proactive role in preventive medicine-as can be seen below. Selected Statistics on Cuban Medical Cooperation Dec. 1998-May 2007[5] Visits to the doctor 10,682,124 Doctor visits to patients 4,150,631 Attended births 86,633 Major and minor surgeries 160,283 Vaccinations 899,829 Lives saved (emergency) 210,852 By 2010, at no cost to medical students, Cuba had trained some 550 Haitian doctors, and is at present training a further 567... ... http://www.counterpunch.org/kirk04012010.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
