Cuban authorities reported on national televisionย Wednesday thatย theirย operation to fightย Ebola in Sierra Leone was having success.
โWe have managed to save the lives of 260 people who wereย in a very very bad state, and through our treatment, they were cured and have gotten on withย their lives,โ said Jorge Delgado, head of the brigade ofย doctors and nurses to EFE.
Cuban doctors arrived in Sierra Leone, still facing one of the worstย Ebola epidemics in history, in October last year, committing over 400 doctors to the West African region. Twenty-four Cuban doctors were already in the country as part of Cubaโs ongoingย medical assistance to countries which need it.
โDelgado is participating in a conference in Genevaย on Foreignย Medical Teams that are fighting the Ebola epidemic. Eighty-sixย organizationsย from 11 countries are attending the conference, includingย three Cuban brigade heads.
The average age of Cubanย doctors and nurses in Sierra Leone is 47, meaning that many haveย 20 to 25 years of experience.
In their time there so far, the doctorsย and nurses haveย treated over 1,000 people, but not all of them had Ebola; many others had other illnesses with similar symptoms, such as malaria.
Delgado said he felt optimistic. While his team was previously treating 20 cases per day,ย now they treat just 3 to 4 patients.
He also pointed to secret burials as a key cause of infection. Ebola is more contagious at the time of death or after a person has died. He said that despiteย manyย awareness raising campaigns to help prevent the spread of Ebola, many people continued to perform burials in unsafe ways.
