PAHO describes
Cuban cooperation in Haiti as excellent
Leticia Martínez
Hernández / Photo: Juvenal Balán
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti.— Mirta Roses, director of
the Pan American Heath Organization (PAHO),
described Cuban medical cooperation in Haiti
yesterday as excellent and marvelous during a visit
to La Paix University Hospital, one of three
institutions in the Haitian capital where Cuban
doctors are working.
|
Mirta Roses,
director of the Pan
American Heath Organization, talking
with members of the Cuban medical
brigade working in La Paix Hospital.
Photo: Juvenal Balán |
"We left desperate at the beginning because we
couldn’t put our team in contact with the Cuban
medical brigade that is working here. We wanted them
to know that the PAHO ProMed medical center was
active.
"Given that the Cubans were already in Haiti
before the earthquake, they have an advantage in
terms of response," she commented.
Roses assured that PAHO next actions will be
directed at continuing to cooperate with Haiti and
with the Dominican Republic, above all in the
services that the latter is offering on the border,
and to coordinate international aid in the
healthcare field.
On aid to Haiti, she observed that many
volunteers are arriving spontaneously, without
assigned places or infrastructure and so they end up
competing for resources such as food, water, and
logical aid. "So we are trying to make a selection
of those volunteers in order to place them where
there is already organization and discipline. I
think that the type of persons needed now is not the
same as in the initial days."
The PAHO director explained that although the
priority is to attend those injured in the
earthquake, programs against tuberculosis, HIV, and
malaria must be reestablished. "We’re beginning to
organize the necessary booster vaccinations and, for
that reason, I don’t think that we are going to see
large-scale epidemic disasters in Haiti," she
concluded.
