Quake-Hit Pakistan Receives 30 Field Hospitals From Cuba

More than 30 field hospitals have been donated by Cuba to help Pakistan recover from the devastating earthquake that claimed nearly 75, 000 valuable human lives, in October last year.

'Two more field-medical facilities run by the Cuban paramedics have been donated to the government of Pakistan-administered Kashmir,' Col. Muhammad Usman clarified.

Cuba's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla signed an agreement in Muzaffarabad, the region's capital, to formally hand over the field hospitals.

The first group of 2,463 Cuban medical personnel arrived in Pakistan a week after the Oct 8 quake that wounded more than 100,000 people and left an estimated 3.5 million people without shelter.

'Cuban hospitals treated more than 130,000 patients and performed 12,000 surgeries during their stay in Pakistan,' Usman stated.

Further, as many as 14 critically wounded patients from the quake-hit areas were transferred to Cuba for treatment, local officials at the Cuban field hospitals in the North-West Frontier Province district of Mansehra said.

Some members of the Cuban medical team have already returned while the remaining are likely to leave for home during the next few days.

Meanwhile, the US medical team also announced Tuesday it would wind up its relief operation with 1,200 personnel in Pakistani Kashmir by March 31.

Edited IANS