Cuba and Russia send Medical Teams to Italy

Cuba has dispatched a brigade of elite doctors and nurses to Italy for the first time this weekend to help in the fight against the novel Corona-virus at the request of the worst-affected region Lombardy.

The Caribbean island has sent its “armies of white robes” to disaster sites around the world largely in poor countries since its 1959 revolution. Its doctors were in the front lines in the fight against Cholera in Haiti and against Ebola in West Africa in the 2010’s.

Meanwhile, the Russian military will send medical help to Italy starting Sunday to help it to battle the Corona-virus after receiving an order from Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Putin spoke to Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte on Saturday, the Kremlin said, adding that the Russian leader had offered his support and help in the form of mobile disinfection vehicles and specialists.

Italy recorded a jump in deaths from the Corona-virus of almost 800 on Saturday, taking the death toll in the world’s hardest-hit country to almost 5,000.

This is the sixth medical brigade Cuba has sent in recent days to combat the spread of the new disease abroad. It has sent contingents to socialist allies Venezuela and Nicaragua as well as Jamaica, Suriname and Grenada.

The Cuban doctors and nurses will join the ten professionals from China who arrived on Thursday in Milan. Cuban and Chinese medical personnel will be sent to a field hospital in Bergamo, the region of Lombardy most affected by the pandemic.

The images of Russian military doctors in Italy, a NATO country, helping Italians overcome a medical crisis that NATO could not cope with, beg the question:

What would happen in a hypothetical shooting war between NATO and Russia; will Russian mobile medical units be called upon to treat NATO casualties behind enemy lines?

The Russian Defense Ministry said that military transport planes would deliver eight mobile brigades of military medics, special disinfection vehicles and other medical equipment to Italy this week, The Independent reported.

Russia will also send about 100 military specialists in virology and epidemics, the Interfax news agency cited the defense ministry as saying.

Asia Times / ABC Flash Point News 2020.