Support to Cuba's Mission against the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone

The grant to the Government of Cuba aimed to support national efforts to mitigate the impact and prevent the spread of the EVD outbreak in West Africa, particularly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Its main objective was to support the Cuban medical brigades deployed in this region whose work focused mainly on capacity building activities to increase the resilience of national health systems as well as containing the spread of the EVD epidemic. The Grant proceeds were utilized mainly for the procurement of medical equipment and medicine, as well as to cover the cost of training activities. At the moment of the epidemic Cuba had 271 cooperators in West Africa, to whom the cooperation action should be addressed aiming at preparing the health personnel for the disease prevention in case of new cases were diagnosed, to assume the patient’s treatment and follow up. OFID ‘s contribution allowed support the brigade’s work in eight Western African countries: Ghana (22), Niger (14) , Guinea Conakry (15), Gambia (117), Guinea Bissau (26), Sierra Leone (23), Burkina Faso (22), Cape Verde (55). It covered the expenses of the equipment such as: Biological Protection Kit, Waste containers for dangerous garbage, Lap Top, Biodegradable containers for dangerous waste, mosquito net with insecticide, thermometers, flash memory and external disk. The protection kits allowed the training of 271 collaborators to face Ebola diseases, of them 1553 as facilitator, which prepared 14000 professionals of the Cuban Medical Brigade personnel of the Embassy, technicians and headquarters of different countries. OFID’s support also contributed in the assessment of the implementation of the health prevention program in different countries, which is a relevant action according to the maintainability of the emergent actions taking place. Particularly, the program for the sanitary education promotion of the population was done. Furthermore they facilitate the Exchange of experience in the health field and Medical Science and improve the quality of the offered service. This project was favourable for the realisation of the investigation and improvement of the asistencial indexes, which is a contribution to the health of the inhabitants where the Medical Brigades are settled. In addition, the project in case of Gambia and Guinea Bissau supported the labour that the Cuban health professionals did in the formation of human resources of these countries, particularly the 710 students of medicine, 332 in Gambia and 378 in Guinea Bissau. The teachers did labour with students of medicine, after they received the training with the collaborators. In this international sanitary cooperation these were new circumstances and new experiences and for the Central Unit of Medical Cooperation (CUMC) and for the ministry of health of Cuba. In less than 2 weeks, more than 14000 doctors and nurses from the National Health System voluntary offer themselves to fight Ebola Epidemic in Western Africa. The presence of the sanitary personnel of Cuba was the donation of Government of Cuba to the WHO for the epidemic fighting. The intense and conscious preparation in biosecurity measures (personnel protection and patient’s management) in Cuba personnel had succeeded his mission. During these eleven years, 7491 health professional qualified for this type of mission have treated more than 3,500,000 individual and have saved to more than 80,000 by work of 250 Cuban specialists in African nations during Ebola Epidemic.