Cuba pledges 165 health workers to treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone

The World Health Organization’s director general, Margaret Chan, has welcomed the Cuban government’s offer of 165 nurses and doctors to join the medical response to the outbreak of Ebola virus disease, while reiterating the desperate need for health staff.

In a joint press conference with Chan, Cuba’s health minister, Roberto Morales Ojeda, said that 62 doctors and 103 nurses, all experienced in foreign medical missions, would be travelling to Sierra Leone at the beginning of October to help in the worst ever outbreak of Ebola virus disease.

Chan thanked the Cuban government for its “generosity and solidarity” but said that in the three worst affected countries—Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea—the outbreak was moving faster than the government and international partners could control it. …