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Cuba Creates International
Disaster and Epidemic Brigade
The world now can count on a
medical brigade willing to
provide services anywhere there
is an epidemic or
catastrophe.Cuba to Further
Improve Health Statistics, Fidel
Castro Says
The Henry Reeve International
Contingent of Disaster and
Epidemic Physicians, a team of
1,586 physicians, was officially
inducted by President Fidel
Castro at the graduation
ceremony for 1,903 new doctors
from the island´s medical
schools.
The genesis of this undertaking
occurred on Sep 4, with the
initial goal of offering
humanitarian aid to the United
States for victims of hurricane
Katrina.
“We form professionals to fight
death,” said the Cuban
President, and the
qualifications are certainly
stringent, including knowledge
of epidemiology and disease, two
languages, physical fitness and
willingness to relocate wherever
necessary.
“If wealthy nations ever decide
to collaborate in the combat
against the pandemics of poor
countries, they’ll need
professionals like those in the
Henry Reeve brigade,” declared
Fidel Castro, citing Cuba’s
first world infant mortality and
life expectancy stats as
evidence of the island´s medical
success.
“We are not bragging, simply
explaining, in all fairness, how
Cuba is the country that has
done most to share with the
world its medical experience and
knowledge,” he said.
“We have never forsaken any
nation that really needed our
help in the case of a
catastrophe, regardless of
ideologic
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