• Submitted by: lena campos
• Health and Medicine
• 09 / 14 / 2013

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Cuban health professionals praised the "More Doctors" program, directed by the government of Brazil to ensure primary health care for all its citizens.

"From the experience gained, it can be said that the work of family medicine, especially the direct contact with people, in the care of children and elderly, preventive and educational work has a positive impact on improving the health of the Brazilian population," Dr. Vivian Isabel Chavez Perez told Prensa Latina.

Highlighting the professionalism and preparation of the first group of 400 Cuban specialists, composed mostly of doctors with teaching degrees and the experience of having served more than two missions in other nations, Chavez Perez considered their attention in municipalities where there has never been a doctor to be very important.

She noted that there are 176 Cuban doctors in Brasilia, who along with a number of foreign specialists will end the first part of their training course in Friday, learning the details of the public health system in this nation and improving their knowledge of the Portuguese language.

Starting tomorrow, she added, they will travel to state capitals where they will work for a week and become familiar with the major aliments, customs and traditions of each region.

Cuban specialists will be located in northern states such as Acre, Pará, Amazonas and Tocantins, while another group will be in towns on the outskirts of Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, in southwest Brazil.

Orelvis Espinosa Perez, another Cuban doctor, will work in the Brazilian Amazon, like another 60 Cuban specialists who were selected to work in the states of Amazonas, Acre and Rondonia, among others, following the experience of similar missions in Venezuela and Bolivia. These communities, villages and tribes are accessible only by air or sea.

Doctor Espinosa said that the specialists will serve a population of 612,000 inhabitants, of whom 220,000 are from indigenous areas where the major diseases include malaria, leishmaniasis, diarrheal and respiratory illnesses, he said. Presented last July by President Dilma Rousseff, the program "More Doctors" will feature four thousand doctors from Cuba, following an agreement signed between the Ministry of Health of Brazil and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Source: Prensa Latina