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Source: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cuba-punches-above-weight-white-110853838.html
Cuba punches above weight with 'white coat army' during pandemic
Sarah Marsh and John Zodzi
September 14, 2020, 7:08 a.m. EDT
HAVANA/LOME (Reuters) - At the start of Togo's coronavirus outbreak, the small West African nation welcomed a team of 12 Cuban healthcare workers to tend to sufferers of the virus, boost its laboratory testing and help improve its hospital protocols.
While the virus was overwhelming healthcare systems worldwide, the Communist-run Caribbean island boasted a rare resource: a surplus of doctors trained in deploying abroad and battling infectious disease.
And it was willing to dispatch them all over the globe to nations requesting help.
"As scientific and medical circles groped in the dark, Cuban medicine, strong from past experiences, brought appropriate answers," said the head of cooperation at Togo's foreign ministry, Charles Azilan.
Nearly 40 countries across five continents have received Cuban medics during the pandemic, as the island nation - home to just over 11 million inhabitants - has once more punched far above its weight in medical diplomacy.
Since its 1959 leftist revolution, Cuba has dispatched its "army of white coats" to disaster sites and disease outbreaks around the world in the name of solidarity. In the last decade, they have fought cholera in Haiti and Ebola in West Africa.
Not that its brigades are purely altruistic. Cuba has exported doctors on more routine missions in exchange for cash or goods in recent decades, making them its top source of hard currency.
While some countries have received the medics for free during the pandemic, others are paying: a slight boon to Cuba's economy struggling with the coronavirus-induced collapse in tourism...
Cuba punches above weight with 'white coat army' during pandemic
Sarah Marsh and John Zodzi
September 14, 2020, 7:08 a.m. EDT
HAVANA/LOME (Reuters) - At the start of Togo's coronavirus outbreak, the small West African nation welcomed a team of 12 Cuban healthcare workers to tend to sufferers of the virus, boost its laboratory testing and help improve its hospital protocols.
While the virus was overwhelming healthcare systems worldwide, the Communist-run Caribbean island boasted a rare resource: a surplus of doctors trained in deploying abroad and battling infectious disease.
And it was willing to dispatch them all over the globe to nations requesting help.
"As scientific and medical circles groped in the dark, Cuban medicine, strong from past experiences, brought appropriate answers," said the head of cooperation at Togo's foreign ministry, Charles Azilan.
Nearly 40 countries across five continents have received Cuban medics during the pandemic, as the island nation - home to just over 11 million inhabitants - has once more punched far above its weight in medical diplomacy.
Since its 1959 leftist revolution, Cuba has dispatched its "army of white coats" to disaster sites and disease outbreaks around the world in the name of solidarity. In the last decade, they have fought cholera in Haiti and Ebola in West Africa.
Not that its brigades are purely altruistic. Cuba has exported doctors on more routine missions in exchange for cash or goods in recent decades, making them its top source of hard currency.
While some countries have received the medics for free during the pandemic, others are paying: a slight boon to Cuba's economy struggling with the coronavirus-induced collapse in tourism...