It is one of the world’s best-kept secrets: an island nation, whose citizens earn on average under $50 a month, has outstripped the high and mighty in extending international medical support to those in dire need. That nation is Cuba. And its conception of healthcare is nothing short of revolutionary.
Cuba currently has more medical personnel serving abroad than all of the wealthy G-8 nations combined. As of April 2012, there were 38,868 Cuban medical professionals working in 66 countries, of whom 15,047 were doctors – about 22 per cent of Cuba’s total number of physicians. To date some 135,000 health workers have participated in medical missions abroad.
