WHO thanks Cuba's support to face Ebola

The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan, thanked on 12 September the generosity of Cuba and its medical professionals in the country which will help contain the worst outbreak of Ebola in the history.

The commitment of Cuba is an example of the kind of international effort that is needed to strengthen the activities of response to the epidemic and strengthen national capacities, said Chan in an official statement issued at the headquarters of the WHO in Geneva.

Chan added that Cuba is renown worldwide for its ability to train doctors and nurses, as well as for its generosity in helping other nations in its path towards progress. She also said that WHO welcomed the commitment to send 165 Cuban health professionals to face Ebola in West Africa.

The support, announced on Friday in Geneva by the Cuban Health Minister Roberto Morales, includes doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, specialists in infection control and intensive care.

The Cuban health professionals will be sent to Sierra Leone in the first week of October and will stay there for six months, Chan said, and noted that all of them have worked in Africa before.

"If we are to go to war against Ebola, we need the resources to fight it," said the director general of the WHO. Since the current outbreak was detected in March there have been about 4,000 cases and more than 2,000 fatalities especially in Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia

Source: KUNA