Monrovia, 16 March 2015 - As Liberia marks the second week of Zero cases of Ebola, the Cuban medical team through the Cuban Government Health Attaché announced conclusion of the team’s successful Ebola Response mission in the country. The Attaché was addressing a ceremony organized by the Ministry of Health in partnership with UNMEER, World Health Organization and US CDC to bid farewell to the team.

The Cuban team was comprised of 53 medical officers including, doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, intensive care doctors, general practitioners, surgeons, pediatricians, intensive care nurses, anesthetists, and license nurses. They were among the first largest foreign medical team from a single country to respond to this outbreak. Before deployment, the team underwent basic initial training on Ebola in Cuba and on arrival in Liberia received second training equipping them to safely work in an Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) based at the Ministry of Defense compound in Monrovia.

While in Liberia, the team operated under the banner of the World Health Organization within a multinational engagement. WHO staff, Liberian medical personnel, Cubans, African Union, and Swedish teams worked alongside each other. The quality of work has been high as evidenced with no healthcare worker infection from the beginning to end of the Cuban team’s mission. The last EVD case managed by the team was discharged on February 10.

In total, the team managed 198 admissions between 6 November 2014 and 4 February 2015. 54 of them were confirmed cases. The team covered day and night shifts, weekends, and holidays including both Christmas and New Year.

In bidding farewell to the team on behalf of the Government of Liberia, the Acting Minister of Health and Chief Medical Officer Dr Beatrice Dahn, acknowledged that the country is “on the verge of defeating the Ebola virus and eliminating the disease from our Liberia. All this would not have been possible if we had not received the level of national and international response to fight against this deadly disease. I am extremely grateful to the government of Cuba for identifying with Liberia during our hour of distress”.

The Cuban medical team arrived at a time when there was a dire need for human resource to support the response, according to Dr Emmanuel Musa, Deputy WHO Country Representative. Dr Musa thanked the Government of Cuba for this great contribution and congratulated the Government of Liberia for providing an enabling environment to work.

Their deployment followed from a commitment of the Government of Cuba to the UN Secretary General Dr Ban Ki-moon, the Director General of World Health Organization, Dr Margret Chan, and Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia.