Cuba: 731 Haitians Doctors Graduated
Source: Prensa Latina, 07 July 2011.
Haitian physicians trained at the Caribbean School of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba now number 731, after 115 new doctors graduated here on Thursday. This beneficial collaboration project with Haiti started 12 years ago as an idea of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.
The first group of Haitian doctors graduated in 2005, 291 students are now enrolled as part of a goal of training 1,000 physicians in a decade, said the school's rector, Dr. Rosa Delia Deconger. Over 100 students are completing their residency, mainly in pediatrics, surgery, cardiology and obstetrics and gynecology, Granma newspaper reported.
In this way, Cuba is making one of the biggest contributions to the Haitian health system, which has 2.7 physicians per 10,000 inhabitants, when the World Health Organization says the ratio should be at least 25 to 10,000. The Caribbean School of Medical Sciences will soon mark its 31st anniversary, with a total of 4,812 graduates. These graduates include 1,051 students from 25 countries, mainly from the Caribbean and Africa, and 2,419 Cubans, in Nursing.
