CUBA’S MEDICAL EXPERIENCE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: ITS CONTRIBUTION AGAINST COVID-19

Abstract

Medical cooperation has been one of the fundamental pillars of Cuba’s foreign policy. In this sense, Africa has been one of the regions that most benefited from the export of Cuban medical services. One of the dimensions of this cooperation has been the confrontation with preventable diseases such as malaria through the transfer of technology and medicines, the training of medical personnel in Cuba through an extensive scholarship program for African students, and the creation of medical schools in various African countries with the purpose of also contributing to such professional training. The prestige of this collaboration has contributed to the strengthening of political-diplomatic ties between Cuba and Africa. This cooperation reached a new dimension after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Cuba, following a request from several African governments, decided to expand the presence of its health personnel on the continent. This is how the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics was activated. In this context, six medical brigades left for Angola, Togo, Cape Verde, South Africa, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to total 505 Cuban health professionals who joined the thousands of doctors already working in Africa.