MEDICC Rev. 2021 Jan;23(1):18-20. doi: 10.37757/MR2021.V23.N1.2. Epub 2021 Jan 30.
On March 23, 2020, Cuba's Henry Reeve Emergency Medical Contingent began treating COVID-19 patients at Maggiore Hospital in Crema, Lombardy. Within days, the 52-member contingent comprised of 36 doctors and 15 nurses (plus 1 logistics specialist), together with Italian colleagues, were receiving patients in an adjacent fi eld hospital established and equipped for this purpose. At the time, Lombardy was the epicenter of COVID-19 transmission in Europe. Many of the Cubans in Lombardy were Contingent veterans, having served in postdisaster and epidemic scenarios in Chile, Pakistan, Haiti and elsewhere since the founding of the emergency medical team in 2005. Importantly, some had worked fi ghting the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Even so, providing medical care during COVID-19 is a unique challenge, the likes of which had never before been seen by the Cuban team. Dr Carlos R. Pérez-Díaz, one of the Contingent's founding members, headed the team during its 60-day rotation in Lombardy, drawing on a wide array of professional experience. From 2006 to 2009, Dr Pérez-Díaz led the Cuban team posted at the Peltier Hospital in Djibouti, where he worked in the infectious disease department; in 2008, this team helped control a cholera outbreak that had spread to three countries. Following the 2010 earthquake in Chile, Dr Pérez-Díaz headed the team of Henry Reeve volunteers that provided free health services for 10 months in a tent hospital established to treat victims; he returned to Chile in 2015, again as head of the Henry Reeve Contingent, after severe fl ooding struck the Atacama region.
2020 年 3 月 23 日，古巴“亨利·里韦尔”医疗队开始在伦巴第大区克雷莫纳市马焦雷医院治疗新冠患者。几天之内，这支由 36 名医生和 15 名护士（外加 1 名后勤专家）组成的 52 人医疗队，与意大利同事一起，在为这一目的而设立和配备的相邻野战医院接收患者。当时，伦巴第大区是欧洲新冠病毒传播的中心。伦巴第大区的许多古巴人都是医疗队的老兵，自 2005 年应急医疗队成立以来，他们曾在智利、巴基斯坦、海地和其他地方的灾后和疫情场景中服务。重要的是，一些人曾在 2014 年西非埃博拉疫情中工作过。尽管如此，在新冠疫情期间提供医疗服务是一个独特的挑战，古巴医疗队以前从未遇到过这种挑战。医疗队的创始成员之一卡洛斯·R·佩雷斯-迪亚斯（Carlos R. Pérez-Díaz）博士在伦巴第大区的 60 天轮值期间领导了该团队，他借鉴了广泛的专业经验。2006 年至 2009 年，佩雷斯-迪亚斯博士领导了驻吉布提佩尔蒂埃医院的古巴医疗队，在那里他在传染病科工作；2008 年，该医疗队帮助控制了一场蔓延到三个国家的霍乱疫情。2010 年智利地震后，佩雷斯-迪亚斯博士领导了“亨利·里韦尔”志愿者医疗队，该医疗队在一个帐篷医院为受害者提供了 10 个月的免费医疗服务；2015 年，他再次作为“亨利·里韦尔”医疗队的队长回到智利，当时阿塔卡马地区遭遇了严重洪灾。
