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TORONTO — “I am proud of what my country has done for others,” Dr. José de Jesús Portilla, inset, director of revolutionary Cuba’s medical missions in 15 countries, told some 35 people at a meeting here May 15 to kick off a cross-Canada tour titled “Africa Called, Cuba Answered: Cuba’s Critical Contribution to the Fight Against Ebola.” He will speak in six other cities and return here at the end of May.
Portilla, a professor of International Health who was chief of Cuban medical personnel during Cuba’s mission in the former Republic of Congo (1974) and Angola (1983-85), spoke as Cuban medical personnel, above, headed to Nepal to treat earthquake victims. Health care in Cuba is not a business, Portilla said. The Cuban constitution states that health care must be universal, free, accessible, comprehensive and internationalist. The national health system concentrates on prevention, promotion of healthy living and rehabilitation. Today there are 25,000 Cuban medical doctors active in 67 countries with another 52,000 support staff, he said. Cuba sent 256 volunteers to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry last year to combat the Ebola epidemic. “Their experience broke the myth that 90 percent of Ebola victims die,” Portilla said. “Where the Cubans were working, with good treatment and hard work — primarily rehydration — less than 20 percent died.” |
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| — TONI GORTON |