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The Ernesto Che Guevara Cuban Medical Brigade in Haiti comprises 575 doctors and health professionals, and operates the same Integral Health Programme, based on the Cuban domestic model, as the brigades in 62 other countries from Paraguay to the US(!) and from Venezuela to Cambodia. The model is the same (adapted to each country’s needs) and only the numbers vary, from 1 in Cambodia working with a team of Cambodian professionals to 10,169 in Venezuela.

The brigade in Haiti, the only medical team to remain in Haiti after the overthrow of President Aristides, comprises a National and Departmental structure with smaller units in remote localities and covers 70% of the Haitian population. Their work starts with a comprehensive analysis of the health situation, of the various risks to health and the existing resources.

This is followed by removing the risks that can be dealt with such as ensuring clean drinking water, changing diet, improving sanitation and sewage and by making visits to every house in the locality. This would probably be the first time that most Haitians have been visited by or even met a doctor. On their visits, they see every member of the household and make basic health checks.

They then organise ‘circles’ for the elderly, those with hypertension, pregnant women, adolescents and children to discuss and identify other risks and find solutions, some as basic as exercise for those with hypertension or elderly, prenatal examinations, use of condoms, and family hygiene, and others involving medical solutions including the surgery.

The brigades are composed of mainly young people, many of whom studied in the same medical school and year, along with some very experienced professionals. They comprise specialists in general medicine, internal medicine, orthopaedics, neuro and general surgery, paediatricians, gynaecologists, obstetricians, technicians and other professionals. In each brigade there are commissions for scientific advice, care of the gravely ill, quality, defence advice, finance, discipline and emulation. Their analyses include a detailed breakdown of the main causes of death, types and causes of disabilities and infectious diseases, methods of control of pre and post natal risks and infant and maternal mortality. Because of the shortage of medicines, each brigade grows its own plot of medicinal herbs.

Revolutionary professionalism

The Cuban Health Workers Union (SNTS) is in the vanguard of this strategy. The Cuban doctors are committed to expanding the frontiers of medicine, of science, and to providing health care to the poor of the world despite personal risk of malaria and dengue, as well as being away from home for two years, as well as to the Cuban people. They are also committed to their country, the Cuban revolution and to their union. In the corner of every brigade house is a ‘patriotic corner’, with their flag, and items reminding them of Cuba. This is revolutionary professionalism in practice, only possible because of the revolutionary professionalism of their union.

In Haiti, this revolutionary professionalism has resulted in a verified saving of 81,856 lives since the Cuban Medical Brigade first went to the country. If the same model is at work in 62 countries, the mind boggles at the scale of the contribution of Cuban globalised solidarity. Just compare this with the scale of destruction wrought on the world by the British and US globalised contribution.

The ultimate in sustainability

The question arises, however, how can all this be sustained. Part of the arrangement with the Haitian government, is that young Haitians from the poor areas where the Cubans are currently working, will be selected by their government to be trained as doctors and health professionals in Cuba or by the Cubans in Haiti, and they will return to those poor areas to work for a minimum of 10 years. So far 161 young Haitians have graduated as specialists in Integral General Medicine from the Cuban Medical Faculty in Port au Prince, Haiti, and a further 632 are studying at the Caribbean Medical School in Santiago de Cuba.

As they are all being trained in the Cuban model, it is hoped that they will develop the same revolutionary professionalism as the Cubans.

The Cubans, however, maintain absolute strict political neutrality in Haiti describing recent events as an internal Haitian problem. They are respected by both sides, who in the middle of their fights, would stop to allow safe passage only to the Cubans, who would end up anyway, having to treat their bullet wounds.

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the southern United States in August 2005, the authorities were overwhelmed and the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, appealed to the international community for emergency medical aid. The Cuban government immediately offered assistance to New Orleans and to the states of Mississippi and Alabama, also affected by the storm, and promised that within 48 hours 1,600 doctors, trained to deal with such catastrophes, would arrive with all the necessary equipment plus 36 tonnes of medical supplies. This offer, and another made directly to President George Bush, went unanswered. In the catastrophe at least 1,800 people, most of them poor, died for lack of aid and treatment.

Source: Internet