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Generous solidarity
Cuban doctors have saved the lives
of 286,000 Guatemalans since 1998
GUATEMALA.—The lives of at least 286,000 Guatemalans
have been saved by Cuban doctors according to
official figures released this October, dating back
to 1998, when cooperation in this country began in
the health sector.
According to statistics from the Cuban Medical
Brigade in Guatemala, during the same period its
personnel treated more than 35.43 million patients.
Over
the last 15 years, 273.606 Guatemalans underwent
general or gynecological/obstetrical surgery,
according to figures given to Prensa Latina.
Thanks to Operation Miracle, the report notes,
1122,658 surgeries were performed to treat various
ophthalmological pathologies.
This
last program is a humanitarian project which began
in 2004, promoted by the governments of Cuban and
Venezuela with the objective of restoring the sight
of low income Guatemalans with a number of visual
disorders.
In
11 years more than three million Latin Americas in
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina
and the Dominican Republic have undergone surgeries.
Both
Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and Foreign
Minister Fernando Carrera have publicly recognized
the work of Cubans in the health sector. The first
group from the island arrived in 1998 after the
devastating Hurricane Mitch passed over Guatemala. (PL)
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