(EFE) .- The organization Solidaridad Sense Fronteras (SSF) presented this Tuesday in Florida the website of its program of “direct assistance” to doctors and health professionals in Cuba with the aim of sending medicines and health equipment on the island, which records the highest incidence rate of covid-19 in the Americas.
At a press conference in Hialeah, a neighboring city to Miami, Dr. Julio César Alfonso, the president of SSF, presented “ssfhelp.org/contact-4”, which will henceforth function as the main d help program link.
According to Alfonso, this second stage responds to a first announced last July where necessary information was gathered about the “insecurity and serious crisis facing people in Cuba” by the pandemic.
“If you are a doctor, nurse or health technician who is working in Cuba right now, let them know how we can help you. Supplements, medicines or any other resource you need.”
The program consists of “coordinating different humanitarian assistance operations directly with all health professionals in Cuba who decide to voluntarily join our support network.”
“If you are a doctor, nurse or health technician who is working in Cuba at the moment, let them know how we can help you. Supplements, medicines or any other resource you need in this time of crisis, let them know through of the form below. (…) All this information will be kept confidential, “says the NGO’s website.
Xavier Wong, the entity’s director of operations, told Efe: “We can’t say details” of how the medicine shipments will be made, “but the network we have makes them reach,” he assured.
Alfonso, for his part, detailed that at the beginning of the week the first shipments will come out, “addressed directly to someone and we will know if they arrived”, he explained.
“The mechanisms have been created for them to get their hands on them. We are going to receive one comments with photos and videos, ”added the NGO’s president, who turned 17 this Monday since its founding.
The director explained to the press that the packages are funded through donations and funds from the organization itself, which currently has about 21,000 members.
Dr. Alfredo Melgar, a specialist in internal medicine, reported at the same press conference that the shipments have packages of vitamins C and D, azithromycin, anticoagulants and steroids, among other drugs.
“The Cuban regime does not accept international vaccines because it says they have their own vaccines,” he said. “Young people are dying in Cuba unnecessarily because doctors there do not have access to up-to-date information on the treatment of covid,” Melgar said.
“The Cuban regime does not accept international vaccines because it says they have their own vaccines”
Cuba is facing the current resurgence of the pandemic – reflected in an average of 8,000 cases and 70 deaths a day – with a lack of oxygen, medicines and doctors, oversaturated hospitals and collapsed funeral services.
The country, with 11.2 million people, has the highest incidence rate of the disease in the Americas and one of the largest in the world with 1,173 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 15 days, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
Photos and videos of the deplorable conditions of many hospitals, complaints from doctors themselves about the lack of supplies to work and even criticism for the annoying blackouts, which can last up to six hours a day, are circulating on social media.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue to support us, but this time by becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.