Cuban health personnel assisted over 600 patients in Haiti after the earthquake

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 16 (ACN) Cuban medical personnel who since Saturday have been working in the areas most affected by the earthquake in Haiti have assisted more than 600 patients, Prensa Latina reported today.

As in 2010 after the powerful earthquake that killed some 300,000 people, and in 2018 after the tremor registered in Port de Paix, Cuban specialists were among the first to provide medical assistance to the thousands of victims.

Luis Orlando Olivero, coordinator of the Cuban medical brigade in Haiti, explained that the most frequent causes of consults were polytraumatized, with cranioencephalic traumas, fractures, wounds, contusions, crushing and friction burns.

The preliminary balance of the earthquake is of almost 1,300 dead and more than 5,200 injured, with more than 13,000 houses destroyed and numerous damages to health, educational and religious infrastructures.

In those areas, many of the Cuban specialists provide care outside the buildings, amid the more than 15 aftershocks registered by the seismological services, and the partial or total collapse of health centers.

The Brigade is working along with international organizations such as Doctors beyond Borders and the Red Cross in the city of Port Salut, while they are preparing other teams that could travel to the disaster areas.

"We did not arrive with the earthquake, we have been here for 22 years. We were here during previous earthquakes, during the cholera epidemic, more recently during the COVID-19 pandemic and we will continue until this country needs us," Olivero affirmed.