- ATLANTA (PRNewswire) -- A
prominent U.S. medical group voiced "deep concern" over delays
in health care and epidemic prevention reaching Katrina victims, and urged
U.S. authorities to accept Cuba's offer of 1586 disaster-trained physicians
to prevent a "second wave of sickness and death."
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- Latest reports indicate the U.S. State Department is
backing away from the offer, implying they are not needed.
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- "Up to this point, there been a clear need for more
medical help for Katrina victims," said Peter Bourne, MD, Chairman
of MEDICC and former special adviser on health in the Carter White House
and former Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations. "The
Cuban physicians are accustomed to working in difficult third-world conditions
without the resources and supplies most of us are accustomed to. Since
they are just an hour away, it is a shame that they have not been allowed
to join our committed medical corps already."
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- He is joined by other physicians, medical educators,
international health experts and a former U.S. surgeon general associated
with MEDICC, Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba. From 1998 through
2004, MEDICC has provided medical electives in Cuba for nearly 1000 students
and faculty from 118 U.S. medical, public health and nursing schools.
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- "Cuba has been recognized by the UN, Oxfam and other
international organizations as a leader in disaster response, expertise
that could be saving lives now," said Doctor William Keck, former
long-time director of the Akron, Ohio Department of Public Health.
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- A 2004 Oxfam Report, Weathering the Storm: Lessons in
Risk Reduction from Cuba, states that there are real lessons to be learned
from Cuba on how to safeguard lives during extreme natural disasters, including
getting medical attention to vulnerable populations. The report can be
found at http://www.oxfamamerica.org/cuba.
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- On Tuesday, August 30, Cuba first offered U.S. authorities
hurricane relief in the form of 1100 disaster-trained bilingual physicians,
each equipped with 52-pound pound backpacks of medical supplies, including
rehydration therapy, insulin, anti-hypertensives, and medications for systemic
and topical infections.
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- On Saturday, September 3, Cuba increased the offer to
1586 doctors, ready for immediate deployment and prepared to stay as long
as necessary to help wherever needed. A Cuban spokesperson said that as
of today there has been no official response from the U.S. government.
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- Cuban disaster relief experience spans 45 years, mainly
in hurricanes faced by the Caribbean island and in coping with disasters
confronted by other developing countries. Another nearly 25,000 Cuban health
professionals provide longer-term health care services in 68 countries,
under government-to-government agreements.
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- Cuba trains 10,500 medical students from 27 countries
at its Latin American Medical School -- 65 of them from poor and minority
communities in the USA. (See The New England Journal of Medicine, 2004;
351:2680-82.)
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- "What an irony that the first U.S. MD to graduate
from the school this August is a young African American from New Orleans,"
said Diane Appelbaum, RN, NP, MS. "He just passed the U.S. medical
boards and is eager to fulfill the commitment he made in exchange for his
free education from Cuba to serve the very poverty-stricken areas now devastated."
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- For additional first-hand reports and interviews from
Cuba, please see MEDICC's on-line journal, MEDICC Review at http://www.medicc.org,
Archives, Vol VI, No. 3, 2004 Disaster Management in Cuba: Reducing the
Risk.
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- MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba) is a
non-profit organization based in Atlanta. MEDICC is committed to maintaining
institutional and educational links between the U.S. and Cuban medical
communities. MEDICC publishes the English-language journal MEDICC Review,
reporting on Cuba's medical and public health programs, available at
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- http://www.medicc.org.
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- Contact: Diane Appelbaum, RN, NP, MS US Director, MEDICC
(678) 904-8090 http://www.medicc.org
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