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History Cuban traditional medicine has existed since before the Spanish conquest, these high status practitioners were called Bohiques (e.g. Zayas, 1914). Chinese medicine was practiced in Cuba, the most famous was a 19th century doctor Cham Bom Biam “El Medico Chino” {Link without Title} . Then it was said of those who were hopelessly terminal “no le salve ni el medico chino.” In Cuba, the Spanish tradition of medicine, was inherited from the Moors who had access to ancient Greek and Roman traditions rescued during the destruction of the ancient Egyptian has alleviated some of those problems. Present Today, according to Cuban government statistics, Cuba has over 71,000 doctors with 20,000 health workers in Venezuela, and 5,000 more spread around the world in over 60 additional countries, as it views such missions an important part of its foreign policy [http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/14018330.htm . They offer medical services to 85,154,748 people; 34,700,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 50,400,000 in Africa and Asia. Cuba has sent doctors to underdeveloped nations and educated foreign doctors since the early 1960s. It dispatched physicians to help Nicaragua and Peru , then hostile to Cuba, recover from earthquakes. {Link without Title} Cuban doctors played a vital role in the health-care system of Sri Lanka in the 1980s, particularly in the war-torn North-east province, when a crisis in that country's education system limited the number of doctors coming out of universities. Cuba has also given treatment on the island to more than 14,000 children and 4,000 adults damaged by radiation in Chernobyl, which is actually more than the rest of the world combined has done for the victims during that catastrophe. During the UN's general assembly in 2000, Fidel Castro offered the United Nations 6,000 doctors for service in the third world. "But one of Castro's most respected achievements is the establishment of a comprehensive health system producing one doctor for every 170 people, compared to 188 in the US and 250 in the UK. Teams of Cuban doctors assess applicants for eye surgery before sending patients to Havana on special flights from ten Caribbean countries and more than 15 Latin American nations. On August 20, Cuba achieved what is almost certainly a world record - performing 1,648 eye operations at 20 hospitals in a single day." "Since July 25, more than 3,000 people from ten Caribbean countries have had eye operations in Cuba funded by oil-rich Venezuela . Other patients from Central and South America bring the total to 100,000 free eye operations this year." {Link without Title} Like a number of countries, Cuba has developed a hospital system for Health Tourists , taking advantage of a combination of low labor costs, an educated work force, and the ability of such tourists to pay in much desired hard currency for their care. The country is now able to operate and provide services in all branches of and Cuba have offered to provide another 100,000 Latin Americans with this service within the same period. Cuba has been able to reduce reported infant mortality to zero in certain remote rural areas. {Link without Title} . The Cuban American National Foundation claims that Cuba masks the truth behind the Cuban health care system. They argue that real Cuban healthcare is abysmal and that what is shown to non-Cuban foreigners is a healthcare system unavailable to the average Cuban. {Link without Title} |
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