Cuba med. team leaves for W Africa

A medical team of 83 doctors and nurses have left Cuba for Guinea and Liberia to help the ongoing battle against the Ebola Virus in West African countries.

The 35 doctors and 48 nurses leaving for West Africa bring the total number of medical workers fighting the spread of Ebola from Cuba to 248.

The health workers were sent to Guinea and Liberia in an arrangement reached with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Epidemiologists, intensive care doctors and nurses, general practitioners, surgeons, pediatricians, and anesthetist are among the team of medical workers.

Havana has already sent 165 medical professionals to Sierra Leone.

On October 21, two people were killed in Sierra Leone in a riot triggered by health workers attempting to take a blood sample from an elderly woman suspected of being infected by the virus. About 10 others were also wounded.

In Sierra Leone alone, the epidemic has claimed about 1,200 lives.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently called on the international community to commit to the fight against the virus, warning that an entire generation of Africans was at risk of “being lost to an economic catastrophe” triggered by the epidemic.

Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever. Its symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding and they typically start between two days and three weeks after contracting the virus.

It spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

WHO says the death toll for Ebola is nearing 4,900 people, with a total of around 10,000 cases being reported.

SZH/AB/SS