Díaz-Canel attends medical cooperation anniversary ceremony

HAVANA, Cuba, May 24 (ACN) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez attended the ceremony for the 60th anniversary of Cuban medical cooperation along with Rebel Army Commander José Ramón Machado Ventura, former Minister of Public Health and organizer of the first Cuban medical brigade, sent to Algeria 60 years ago.

On the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Situations of Disaster and Serious Epidemics—named after Henry Reeve, a Brigadier of the Liberation Army—a bust in his honor was unveiled by the Cuban President and the First Deputy Minister of Public Health, Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández.

In 2010, the Contingent went to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake and the cholera outbreak in that country, as well as to Sierra Leone, Guinea-Conakri and Liberia to fight a cholera epidemic.

Following the inception of COVID-19, a total of 58 brigades worked in 42 nations and, recently, 32 Cuban aid workers travelled to Turkey to treat the victims of the earthquake in February.

Cuba's international medical cooperation began in Algeria on May 23, 1963 at the initiative of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro. Since then, more than 600,000 Cuban medical aid workers have offered their services in 165 countries.