Today, on the 63rd anniversary of their founding, Cuba’s international medical brigades continue to operate in many countries around the world as the Trump administration, and specifically Secretary of State Marco Rubio, threatens any nation still employing these medical professionals whose presence in many cases meant the difference between life and death, having saved over 12.2 million lives, according to the Cuban government.
Cuba’s medical program began in 1963 in Algeria, shoftly after it achieved its independence from France, and since then, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez reported, 605,000 medical professionals have both provided healthcare and trained other medical professionals in 165 countries, Cibercuba reported today. Cuban doctors have provided medical care, performing over 43,000 surgeries, in communities across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia where medical infrastructure was minimal or absent . Ebola, HIV-Aids, cholera and Covid are among the epidemics they treated.