Seychelles’ Cuban Medical Brigade showcases past achievements in Scientific Day celebration   |09 October 2023

The audience listening to a presentation during Saturday’s celebration of Scientific Day

In celebration of the annual Scientific Day, the Cuban Medical Brigade in Seychelles presented some case reports and results of their work during the past year under the health agreement signed between Seychelles and Cuba.

This took place at the Sheikh Khalifa diagnostic centre on Saturday in the presence of the Cuban ambassador to Seychelles, Martha Hernandez Caneiro; the Cuban consul in Seychelles, Tomas Mendez; Dr Reinel Rodriguez, president of the scientific community; Dr Danny Louange, chief executive of the Health Care Agency and other medical staff.

The Cuban Medical Brigade is composed of 36 specialists in the fields of community medicine, intensive care, anaesthesiology, oncology, neurology, haematology, nephrology, paediatrics, urology, ophthalmology, emergency medicine, vascular surgery, and psychiatry, among others.

In his opening speech, the head of the Cuban Medical Brigade, Dr Yoanny Berriel, stated that the day was meant as a break from their daily work as doctors, to dedicate it to the important task of providing part of their work done last year into tangible results.

“The professional and scientific work carried out in Seychelles is a new school of medicine for most of us,” he said.

He went on to explain that the characteristics of the basic table of the most common diseases, the management of preventive aspects, the incidence of acute and chronic diseases with the peculiar evolution and complications; as well as the adequacy of the scientific and professional politics to the country’s performance protocol, are without a doubt the day to day challenge of a Cuban doctor.

“Being able to make modest contributions, scientific-professional and human, to improve the health of the population of Seychelles, and above all, accompany them in saving lives is and will be a perennial purpose in the daily work of Cuban doctors,” he stated.

He added that hopefully the day will become an additional impetus alongside what the country’s Ministry of Health is doing, in its effort to provide quality of life to the people of Seychelles.

“Cuba will be present and as always, will provide its friendly hand to make this challenge possible.”

In an interview post event, the president of the scientific community, Dr Rodriguez  stated that this was a day for celebration and an opportunity to sit and share all the results.

“This is what we have been doing last year; from the last conference to this conference. It is very interesting because the population has a particular characteristic, and not all of them are from the same island, so sometimes you have to send them on another island for treatment,” he stated.

He noted the end result of what they were doing would be to help make the lives of the people better. When asked if Seychelles was doing better health-wise compared to last year, Dr. Rodriguez confirmed that it was indeed.

“Now we can compare all the patients that we are doing in surgery, for example during the presentation about lasers. Last year we did not have lasers, now the resources are much better.”

He said it was important for the people to understand what they were doing and commended the purchases of additional resources by the Ministry of Health, which they are actively using for the health of the people.

One of the specialists present, Dr Ello Quesada, who is a paediatrician from Praslin and La Digue, noted that they are receiving more contributions to improve some areas in child care such as nutrition and chronic coughing.

“The aim is to focus on the people who are having this problem, which we can tackle slowly and gradually. So that contribution is going to be fantastic for us,” said Dr Quesada.

Saturday’s gathering comprised twelve electronic presentations based on 22 investigations in all the fields of family medicine, community medicine, surgical and clinical and in general.

Meanwhile, Dr Berriel stated they are currently awaiting the arrival of eight additional Cuban doctors into the country to increase the membership for the brigade.

Sunny Esparon

Photos by Louis Toussaint