Kerry acknowledges Cuba role in Ebola fight

Secretary of State John Kerry paid a rare US compliment to Cuba on Friday, acknowledging the communist island nation's role in the global fight against Ebola in West Africa.

"Already we are seeing nations large and small stepping up in impressive ways to make a contribution on the frontlines," Kerry told foreign diplomats in Washington as he pleaded for a greater mobilization against the epidemic.

"Cuba, a country of just 11 million people, has sent 165 health professionals and it plans to send nearly 300 more."

On 17 October, former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro wrote an article saying that Cuba was willing to cooperate with the US in the fight against Ebola.

Cuba leads fight against Ebola in Africa as west frets about border security

The island nation has sent hundreds of health workers to help control the deadly infection while richer countries worry about their security – instead of heeding UN warnings that vastly increased resources are urgently needed.

As the official number of Ebola deaths in west Africa’s crisis topped 4,000 last week – experts say the actual figure is at least twice as high – the UN issued a stark call to arms. Even to simply slow down the rate of infection, the international humanitarian effort would have to increase massively, warned secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Cuba's Doctors Shame West Over Ebola Crisis

The island’s solidarity with West Africa is politically inconvenient and so ignored, writes John Wight

The tiny island nation of Cuba shames the world with its international medical missions, with the ongoing Ebola crisis in West Africa a case in point.

Something that has long gone unreported in the West for both geopolitical and ideological reasons is the remarkable role that Cuban doctors and medical personnel have played and are playing in dealing with the aftermath of disasters and crises, both natural and man-made, throughout the developing world.
The most recent example is Cuba’s response to the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Cuba Confirms Support in Fight Against Ebola at Security Council Debate

Cuba has sent over 300,000 health workers to 158 countries in the past half century.

Cuba confirmed the sending of 165 health workers to Sierra Leone to help fight the Ebola outbreak during a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on Thursday.

This was only the second time the Security Council has ever discussed a public health emergency, with the first time being over the Aids epidemic.

Cuba's delegate in the Security Council, Abelardo Moreno, said that all countries must cooperate to stop the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed at least 2,630 people in the region.

Cuba to send doctors to Ebola areas

Cuba is sending 165 health workers to help tackle the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, officials say.

Doctors, nurses and infection control specialists will travel to Sierra Leone in October and stay for six months.

The announcement comes as the World Health Organization says new cases in West Africa are increasing faster than the capacity to manage them.

More than 2,400 people have died from the virus in recent months and some 4,700 people have been infected.

Ebola death toll rises as Cuba sends doctors

The World Health Organisation raises the alarm over a rapid jump in fatalities as Cuba become the largest contributor of doctors to Ebola crisis

Almost 2,500 people have now been killed in the deadliest ever outbreak of Ebola, the UN has said as Cuba becomes the largest contributor of foreign doctors to the west African pandemic.

The virus has continued to spread in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, claiming hundreds more lives in the last few weeks despite attempts to limit contamination, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.