Recognition and honor are imposed on those who, altruistically, daily carry out the task of healing and saving lives. Being a doctor is more than just a title, it implies a deep-rooted vocation, which is a profession and a priesthood.
In Cuba, where there are currently numerous challenges facing Public Health, the work of doctors takes on a transformative dimension.
From hospitals, polyclinics or the family doctor’s office on our Island, to rural areas of Latin America or conflict regions in Africa, professionals in white coats demonstrate the humanity involved and multiplied.
An emblematic example is the Henry Reeve Brigade, a medical contingent founded in 2005, which has been deployed in more than 40 countries, facing epidemics such as Ebola, natural disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti, or the most recent Covid-19 pandemic.
Also noteworthy is the Latin American School of Medicine, where some 31,180 doctors from 122 countries have been trained for 25 years, with representation from all regions of the world. There, confessed Watan Jamil Alabed, a Palestinian doctor who graduated from that school, “if there is something that is practiced, it is internationalism.”
Celebrating Latin American Medicine Day once again is, therefore, an act of recognition and gratitude. It is also a reminder that behind every diagnosis and every treatment, there are people who show their humanity in the noblest and purest form.
