Accra, April 29, GNA - Cuban Medical Practitioners operating in the country have been commended for their tireless efforts in the provision of quality health services to Ghanaians.

Their invaluable and selfless contribution has led to major improvemen= t in health care delivery especially in the very remote areas of the country. The commendation was made by speakers at the 12th Scientific Workshop for Cuban Doctors in the Greater Accra Region in Accra on Friday. The day annual workshop afforded members of the Brigade the opportunit= y to interact, share ideas, review their performance and analyse research findings on the disease burden of the country as well as the actual situation in terms of the delivery of health care services nationwide. Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Director of National Cardiothoraci= c Centre said diseases thrive in Africa due to: malnutrition, lack of access to safe drinking water, poverty, ignorance and suspicion, poor sanitation and hygiene, lack of scientific and technical capacity and disasters. These diseases he said could thrive because Africa had decided to be poor. Prof Frimpong Boateng noted that Africa had six per cent of the earth= 's surface, 20 per cent of the total land mass of 30.2 million square kilometres, 54 countries and 1,000 languages but had only one per cent of the world's trade, and among the 25 bottom poor.

"Until Africans learn to change their attitude and build human capit= al they would still wallow in poverty and disease," he added. Speaking on the topic: 93Cancer and Infectious Diseases in Africa," Professor Frimpong Boateng noted that the leading killers in Africa were Malaria, HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Cancers. He said most cancer deaths were occurring in developing countries with 17.8 per cent of the cases being attributed to viruses, bacteria, and parasites and was affecting 300-500 million Africans and killing about 1.5 to 2.7 million people.

Professor Frimpong Boateng described as unfortunate the situation wher= e a child would die every 45 seconds while thousands of women die annually to cervical cancer the leading cancer in women in Sub-Saharan Africa with estimated 70,700 new cases occurring in 2002. Speaking on the role of the Cuban Medical Brigade at the Police Hospital, Dr Godfried Asiamah, Medical Director of the Hospital said withou= t their services, work at the pathology department would have been difficult because the only pathologist was a Cuban who attended to 1,448 cases in 2010. He said currently the Patient-to-Doctor ratio as well as the number of other health professionals did not correspond to the demand for health care therefore, the intervention by the Cuban Government and the crucial roles played by the medical practitioners could not be underscored. Dr Felipe Delgado Bustillo, National Co-ordinator of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Ghana, said though the Brigade had been in Ghana for the past 28 years, and started its annual scientific workshops 12 years ago its membership had increased tremendously.

He said there were 176 Cuban medical practitioners in 59 hospitals throughout the country providing medical assistance to more than 1.5 millio= n Ghanaians. Dr Bustillo identified their challenges as language barriers; poor infrastructure and equipment for quality health care in the majority of health facilities. However, he observed that serving in Ghana was a fantastic opportunity to co-operate, learn and share ideas with their Ghanaian counterparts for better health delivery.