THE Cuban Medical Brigade in Pakistan is ending its cooperation effort in that Central-Asian country having attended to more than 1.7 million patients, of whom 49.1% were women.

At the farewell event, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, first deputy foreign minister, described the work carried out by these health professionals as a heroic humanitarian feat.

Likewise, he pointed to the efforts now underway by 670 Pakistani specialists in the same places where the Cuban Comprehensive Field Hospitals (HCIC) were set up.

He said that the important factors were the excellent treatment administered, the affection and the love that the Cubans had provided in the areas affected by last year’s October 8 earthquake, reported Juventud Rebelde in its May 17 edition.

Rodríguez emphasized that the work carried out by the Mission’s Logistics Group was the "bravest and most selfless," as well as that realized by the doctors and nurses charged with education, which benefited more than 700 Pakistani medical students and 32 nurses.

Representatives of the HCIC in Muzaffarabad, Mansehra and Abbottabad met with Health Minister Nassir Khan, and Zobaida Jalal, minister of social welfare and special education.

The health minister said that the Pakistani government wishes to strengthen its relations with Cuba in the area of consultancy, vaccine exchange and teacher training.

For her part, Minister Jalal expressed thanks to the Cuban personnel, who dealt with very difficult conditions in the affected regions, where they lived among the people and broke through language and climate barriers.

Bruno Rodríguez thanked both ministries for the support provided over the seven months of the mission, without which the outcome would have been impossible: 1.7 million patients attended and 166,000 in rehabilitation and physical therapy, 32,000 of them children.

These meetings were also attended by Iván Mora, deputy chief of the Cuban Mission; Gustavo Machín, Cuban ambassador in Pakistan, and Juan Carlos Dupuy, head of the Henry Reeve Contingent, among other dignitaries. (AIN)