Cuba pledged 300 more doctors and
nurses to battle the Ebola epidemic in West Africa
on Friday. With a staff of over 460 Ebola
specialists, Cuba will by far have the largest
foreign medical team combating the disease in West
Africa.
The new group of Ebola specialists
are undergoing intensive training, said head of the
Cuban medical relief agency, Regla Angulo. They will
be sent to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Cuba, which has about 50,000 health workers stationed across
the world, received accolades from the UN and the
World Health Organization (WHO) for its effort
against Ebola, last week, when it already had the
largest foreign medical team fighting the killer
virus in West Africa, consisting of 62 doctors and
103 nurses.
The U.S. has sent 3,000 troops to
Liberia as part of its response to Ebola, which it
considers a matter of national security. In addition,
the U.S. pledged 65 clinicians and support staff, to
treat infected health care workers, but not
civilians.
Cuba's latest decision comes as
health experts from 16 European countries petitioned
their governments to increase aid to the affected
region.
"After months of inaction and
neglect from the international community, the Ebola
epidemic in West Africa has now spiraled utterly out
of control," they wrote in an open letter, adding "We
urge our governments to mobilize all possible
resources to assist West Africa in dealing with this
horrific epidemic."
The Ebola epidemic has already
claimed about 3,000 lives in West Africa, with the
number of infected people predicted to reach 20,000
by November, WHO said. (TeleSUR English)
