Cuban doctors save lives.

Cuban health professionals serving in Guyana provide free treatment to more than 70% of the country's population, boosted by the opening of a new Integral Diagnostic Center in Leonora, the second in the country, reports ACN (March 21, 2008). Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, of the Guyana Health Ministry, praised the work of the Cuban doctors many of whom are working in areas of difficult access, reported Granma. Ramsaran bid farewell to two of the 15 Cuban doctors who started the Integral Health Programme in Guyana two years ago. He also welcomed the six Guyanese medical students, in their final year of studies at the Havana based Latin American School of Medicine. The students will spend their last year working under Cuban physicians in Guyanese communities. Rody Cervantes Silva, head of the Cuban medical mission, explained that the 122 Cubans serving throughout Guyana have to date attended more than 385,000 doctor's visits and saved an estimated 200 lives. The work of the Cuban medical staff has also had an impact on the infant mortality rate, which has dropped from 60 per thousand live births to 28, according to the Guyana authorities.