Cuban MD who Contracted Ebola Returning Home Soon
HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone has recovered from the disease and will soon return to the island, according to a statement from the health authorities published today in Havana.
Those responsible for the University Hospital of Geneva where Dr. Felix Baez is being treated “confirmed that the testing has confirmed the disappearance of the virus in his body fluids,” stated the text of the Ministry of Health cited by Prensa Latina.
When discharged, the doctor will return to Cuba, added the text, without specifying dates. Baez is part of a contingent of 165 Cuban medical personnel who traveled to Sierra Leone in October to fight Ebola.
The doctor contracted the disease in mid-November and was taken days later to Geneva, under an agreement between Cuba and the World Health Organization (WHO) to treat Cuban collaborators who could become sick with Ebola in West Africa, noted dpa news.
Cuba has been at the forefront of the international fight against Ebola by sending a total of 256 doctors and other health workers to the three countries most affected by the epidemic, which has killed at least 6,187 people, according to the latest figures from the WHO.
In addition to the 165 aid workers in Sierra Leone, the government of Raul Castro sent another 91 to Liberia and Guinea in mid-October. WHO currently estimates the number of infections in the three countries at 17,517, in what is considered the worst outbreak of Ebola in history.
After the departure of the Cuban medical teams to Africa, WHO sources on the island had specified that those who fell ill with Ebola would not be repatriated to Cuba. Baez is the first Latin American known to have contracted the virus.
Che had a distinct interest in pathology. After he executed his first victim by shooting, he opened up the skull to examine the effects of the bullet upon the brain. But despite any respect that some may have for the executioner of El Morro, one cannot help but wonder where his allegiance as Dr. Ernesto Guevara to the Hippocratic Oath had gone?
The entire world, must be gratified by this wonderful news. To these exemplary men from Cuba, Africa, the US, Spain, France and others, who voluntarily left the comfort and safety of home, to go and serve those who needed them most, gives us faith and hope, that all not lost.
Hipocrates, Madam Currie, Finlay, Sabin and Salk, Pasteur, Allende, Che and my friend Pompi Horsford, who against the will of his bosses, left his family and his post in the hospital of Guantanamo and went to Angola where he fell 4 months after, proves to the world, in their own way, time and causes, that we are not our worst enemies.
To the eternal shame of the Castro regime this ardent supporter and dependable servant of the Castro regime needed a US plane, Swiss doctors and money from the WHO to be saved. The Castro regime would have abandoned him.
Now they will use him for more propaganda.
Thank God, and the Swiss doctors, for saving this brave man’s life. It is good to hear he will be returning home so soon.
I much respect all the doctors, medical staff, construction crews and support staff who have gone to African countries to fight tthe ebola outbreak.
But to claim that: “Cuba has been at the forefront of the international fight against Ebola” is not correct.
The first Cuban medical staff did not leave Cuba until October 1. At that time Medicin sans Frontier had been working against Ebola for over a year. The USA had thousands of people there, the UK and other European countries were all there prior to any Cubans arriving. But, it was good to see the Cubans going to join in the fight.