Cuba to Host Regional Summit to Coordinate Fight against Ebola
HAVANA TIMES — Cuba’s Foreign Ministry announced today that the left-wing Latin American Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) will hold a summit in Havana next Monday to define a possible “joint contribution” to the fight against Ebola, DPA reported.
This “extraordinary summit”, to be held on October 20, is “aimed at coordinating regional cooperation for the prevention of and fight against Ebola,” a communiqué published on the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs webpage announced.
Heads of State and government, as well as high representatives of international organizations and ALBA, made up nine countries and headed by Venezuela, will attend the summit.
According to Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, the bloc seeks to organize a joint response to the UN’s global call to combat the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. ALBA member states will define “their joint contribution to the struggle against this serious health challenge” in order to “prevent the spread of the disease to Latin America and the Caribbean,” the communiqué explained.
Cuba is one of the few countries that have sent doctors and health personnel to West Africa to confront this, the worst outbreak of Ebola in the history of the continent. where, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the disease has killed more than 4,500 people.
At the beginning of the month, Cuba sent the first group of 165 health professionals to Sierra Leone to combat the disease. Cuba also announced that it will send around 300 additional medical doctors and sanitation experts to Liberia and Guinea, the other two countries most severely affected by the outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that the number of deaths caused by the disease has risen to 4,493, while the number of those infected is nearly 9,000.
And not just American companies:
Canadian-made Ebola vaccine starting clinical trials in humans
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/13/canadianmade_ebola_vaccine_to_start_clinical_trials_in_humans.html
I agree with your sensible point: let’s all praise and thank the contributions of all countries while refraining from trying to make narrow political points.
This is a good idea. Poor countries, especially those ALBA countries with poor or non-existent health care infrastructures, will suffer greatly under an Ebola epidemic. I hope that the ALBA leadership can resist their propensity to politicize this event. Despite Cuba’s fast reaction to send medical staff, the world leader in fighting this scourge is the US. The best vaccines and the best equipment used for containment are being developed in the US. Just this morning, Secretary of State Kerry gave high praise to Cuba for their valuable contribution to fighting Ebola. It will be helpful if the ALBA conference can get past their time-worn anti-US propaganda and understand the need to coordinate with the “first world” countries to effectively fight this epidemic.