Fight against Ebola: In praise of Cuba

Ebola was certainly not an item on the agenda of the last August controversial U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Yet observers nonetheless noted that the dreaded disease kept infecting the discussion such that the summit was said to be “Ebola infected.” True to the dependency mentality of most Forty African heads of state at Washington Summit, the […]

Ebola was certainly not an item on the agenda of the last August controversial U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Yet observers nonetheless noted that the dreaded disease kept infecting the discussion such that the summit was said to be “Ebola infected.” True to the dependency mentality of most Forty African heads of state at Washington Summit, the expectation was that President Barack Obama would privilege them with a Vaccine to cure Ebola. Of course no Ebola cure was offered Africa from Washington even as there were some promissory notes of billions of dollars worth of investment. Indeed the Ebola narrative has since changed from being a West African affair to a global threat. America has since recorded first death in Ebola outbreak on its shore. It was in Dallas Texas, where Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian reportedly flew to Texas died of the virus. There is also Ebola hysteria in America with black immigrants being exposed to stigmatisation even without proven infections. Dr. Jim Yong Kim is the President of the World Bank.  Himself a medical doctor and an America has urged that the genuine fear about the spread of Ebola must necessarily translate into global solidarity to fight the disease. The question is whence is the global solidarity to combat Ebola?
One country that is greatly making a genuine sacrifice to offer Africa the necessary support in the battle against Ebola is the Republic of Cuba. Some thousands of kilometres to West Africa, a country of just 11 million people has so far offered the most decisive medical solidarity in the West African nations hit by Ebola. Over 165 health professionals from the country had arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to join the fight against Ebola – “the largest medical team of any single foreign nation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)”.
An additional 296 Cuban doctors and nurses are due in Liberia and Guinea, the other two countries worst hit by the crisis. Just few days ago, precisely Oct 22 President Raul Castro saw off an “83-member medical brigade that will fight Ebola in Africa, particularly in Liberia and Guinea Conakry, two nations hard hit by poverty, which is a major source for the terrible disease. The brigade is made up of 35 physicians and 48 nurses, who expressed their commitment to offer their services and take all established security measures, according to Granma newspaper. All professionals with the brigade have over 15 years of experience, while 42 percent of them have met this kind of medical missions before.
With this brigade, Cuba has 256 medical professionals in western Africa as part of its commitment to health and humanity.”  The dreaded disease has exposed to Africans who still care to know who the friends of Africa are. Cuba unlike United States of America (USA) and China has no economic interests in West Africa but it has offered enormous sacrifices with human resources where money matters but can hardly win the war against Ebola. According to Dr Margaret Chan, director-general at the World Health Organization “Money and materials are important, but those two things alone cannot stop Ebola virus transmission,” “Human resources are clearly our most important need.”. Both America and China have offered some millions of dollars to fight Ebola which of course still fall short of the huge financial resources needed to halt the pandemic. However these two countries have not provided the necessary human resources in terms of medical doctors and medical personnel as Cuba has done. Indeed the America has sent military personnel as if the solution lies in shooting down the disease that is yet to have a cure.
Cuba’s with just of $68billion GDP has shown more commitment to fight that Ebola than many rich countries.  
According to the World Bank President, what the worst hit West African countries need are the “health workers,”. Dr Kim observed that; “There’s tremendous work being done, especially by the U.S. and the U.K. on building facilities, but it’s still not clear where the health workers are going to come from to provide the treatment, the isolation [and] the infection control that we need right now.” This is where Cuba’s intervention is unique and remarkable. Records show that Ebola isn’t the first time that Cuban health workers have been sent to deal with a global disaster. In 1960, after its revolution, Cuba sent doctors to “Chile to help in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, and the practice has continued for decades since. In 2005, Cuba even offered to send medical workers to the United States after Hurricane Katrina in 2005”. The world must rise in praise of Cuba and emulate its practical solidarity with humanity.