Brazil may raise number of Cuban doctors again

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil may raise number of Cuban doctors again
Sunday, December 15th, 2013 at 8:26 am

CUBA STANDARD — The Brazilian government will evaluate the number of doctors needed under the Mais Médicos program in March, President Dilma Rousseff announced during a visit of a Cuban-staffed hospital near São Paulo on Friday.

“If necessary,” the number of foreign doctors hired under the program started in September may be increased again, Rousseff said; Brazilian officials have said they hoped to double Mais Médicos from currently 6,500 to 13,000 doctors. The program, aiming at improving health services in under-served rural and poor urban areas, is eminently popular and has helped boost Rousseff’s political standing, after massive street protests swept the country in summer.

During her participation in the opening of the José Alencar hospital in São Bernardo do Campos, Rousseff was accompanied by her popular predecessor Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva and Health Minister Alexandre Padilha.

Five thousand four hundred of the currently 6,500 foreign doctors in the program are contracted under an agreement between Brazil, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Cuban government. Brazil has been struggling to find enough Brazilian doctors and foreign doctors contracted on an individual base.

More:
http://www.cubastandard.com/2013/12/15/brazil-may-raise-number-of-cuban-doctors-again/

[Judi Lynn]

1. The Dark Side Of The Brazilian Medical ‘Whiteness’ – OpEd

The Dark Side Of The Brazilian Medical ‘Whiteness’ – OpEd
By Pambazuka News

December 4, 2013

By Marcio André dos Santos, Sheila Dias and Pablo Mattos

The history of social and political thinking in Latin American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia, reveals that since the end of the 19th century until the first decades of the 20th century important segments of medical elites participated actively in the elaboration and promotion of racist campaigns. These campaigns were defamatory and of xenophobic character, directed against Asian and Arab migrantes, against blacks and natives. Hygenization and eugenics were systematically practiced against those groups to limit and control their presence on national ground. The racial preaching becomes evident in “The BrazilianDoctor”, a publication by the Medical Academy of Rio de Janeiro from 1904:

“No doubt an imbecile white man is inferior to an intelligent black man. We do not argue though with exceptions. When referring to a race we do not individualize types of that race. Thereby we can see that the black caste equals backwardness; the white caste stands for progress and evolution… Dementia affects the blacks to a bigger extent. One might say they become demented more frequently because of their condition than the whites. …” (Quote from “The spectacle of the races” by Lilia Schwarcz. p. 223)

Those practices are intrinsically related to “racist racial politics” which referred to the immigration of white European workers – preferably “Nordics” like Germans, Swiss and English, who were considered as superior in comparison with the “Latinos”, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and those from Southern Italy.

Equally they received strong support by the state and by private capital by big land owners with the aim to “whiten” the Brazilian population, composed of “blacks, natives and mestizos”.

More:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/04122013-dark-side-brazilian-medical-whiteness-oped/

[MisterP]

4. after Mitch, Cuban doctors visited Honduran towns that had never seen a catracho doctor, ever

the Honduran doctors' response, of course, was that they kicked out the Cuban ones for making them look bad...

[Judi Lynn]

2. Cuban doctors tend to Brazil's poor, giving Rousseff a boost

Cuban doctors tend to Brazil's poor, giving Rousseff a boost
By Anthony Boadle
JIQUITAIA, Brazil Sun Dec 1, 2013 9:19am EST

(Reuters) - They were heckled and called slaves of a communist state when they first landed, but in the poorest corners of Brazil the arrival of 5,400 Cuban doctors is being welcomed as a godsend.

The program to fill gaps in the national health system with foreign doctors, mainly from Cuba, could become a big vote-winner for President Dilma Rousseff as she eyes a second term in next year's election despite fierce opposition from Brazil's medical class.

The move to tap Cuba's doctors-for-export program begun by former leader Fidel Castro became a priority for Rousseff after massive protests against corruption and shoddy public transport, education and healthcare services rocked Brazil in June.

Within weeks, she launched "Mais Médicos", or "More Doctors", a program to hire foreign physicians. Brasilia signed a three-year contract to bring thousands of Cuban doctors to work in poor and remote areas where Brazilian physicians prefer not to practice.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/01/us-brazil-doctors-cuba-idUSBRE9B005720131201

[Judi Lynn]

3. Brazilian Media Highlights Assitance by Cuban Doctors in Rain-affected Areas

Brazilian Media Highlights Assitance by Cuban Doctors in Rain-affected Areas
2013.12.26 - 11:48:02 / [e-mail]



The Brazilian newspaper A Gazeta, published in the state of Espíritu Santo, stressed the outstanding job being performed by Cuban doctors in that area in the assistance of victims of torrential rains that have already caused over thirty deaths and scores of wounded.

Eleven Cuban doctors are working the area where there were no Brazilian physicians. The newspaper quoted doctor Orlando Maure as sayhng: “The local population needs help and it is our duty to help them”.

In the locality where doctor Maure is working, not less than fifteen thousand persons abandoned their homes and looked for shelter in higher ground after the torrential rains caused extensive flooding due to the overflowing of local rivers.

According to A Gazeta, over two hundred thousand inhabitants of that Brazilian area have been affected by the torrential rains.

http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/news/brazilian-media-highlights-assitance-cuban-doctors-rain-areas-20131226/

(Short article, no more at link.)