Cuban MD who Contracted Ebola Returning Home Soon

Cuban MD who Contracted Ebola Returning Home Soon
December 5, 2014

HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone has
recovered from the disease and will soon return to the island, according
to a statement from the health authorities published today in Havana.

Those responsible for the University Hospital of Geneva where Dr. Felix
Baez is being treated "confirmed that the testing has confirmed the
disappearance of the virus in his body fluids," stated the text of the
Ministry of Health cited by Prensa Latina.

When discharged, the doctor will return to Cuba, added the text, without
specifying dates. Baez is part of a contingent of 165 Cuban medical
personnel who traveled to Sierra Leone in October to fight Ebola.

The doctor contracted the disease in mid-November and was taken days
later to Geneva, under an agreement between Cuba and the World Health
Organization (WHO) to treat Cuban collaborators who could become sick
with Ebola in West Africa, noted dpa news.

Cuba has been at the forefront of the international fight against Ebola
by sending a total of 256 doctors and other health workers to the three
countries most affected by the epidemic, which has killed at least 6,187
people, according to the latest figures from the WHO.

In addition to the 165 aid workers in Sierra Leone, the government of
Raul Castro sent another 91 to Liberia and Guinea in mid-October. WHO
currently estimates the number of infections in the three countries at
17,517, in what is considered the worst outbreak of Ebola in history.

After the departure of the Cuban medical teams to Africa, WHO sources on
the island had specified that those who fell ill with Ebola would not be
repatriated to Cuba. Baez is the first Latin American known to have
contracted the virus.

Source: Cuban MD who Contracted Ebola Returning Home Soon - Havana
Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=107767