Global Health News

Date: Feb 12, 2015 @ 6-8 pm
Location: Dalhousie University, McCain room 2198

The Dalhousie Department of Spanish & Latin American Studies invites you to an evening lecture with Dr. John Kirk, Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies. 

In late 2014 the first country to respond to the U.N. call for medical support in the face of the Ebola outbreak was Cuba, and 15,000 medical personnel volunteered to go to West Africa. This is the latest example of a policy of medical cooperation that dates back to 1960. At present some 55,000 Cuban medical personnel are working in over 60 countries of the developing world, and 20% of Cuba's doctors are working overseas. To put this in context, Cuba (pop. 11.2 million) has more medical staff working abroad than the World Health Organization and the G-7 countries together. This presentation, based upon research in Cuba and Central America for nearly a decade, examines two central questions: a) what are the Cuban medical personnel doing?; b) what is the reasoning behind this long-term policy?

Please arrive early, space is limited.
For more information: dalspan@dal.ca