• Submitted by: admin
• International
• South America
• Health and Medicine
• 01 / 07 / 2007

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Ecuadorian Health Minister Guillermo Wagner told reporters that during the past six months the two centers devoted to ophthalmologic care installed by Cuba have performed a total of 8,400 operations.

The Minister said that of those 6,500 were for pterigium, 1,800 for cataract surgery and the rest related to glaucoma and other eye diseases.

The ophthalmologic centers were established in June 2006 in Latacunga, the capital of the mountainous Cotopaxi province, where there is a large percentage of indigenous population, and in the Santa Elena peninsula in the province of Guayas along the coast.

The rest of the surgeries took place in Havana between November 2005 and June 2006.

Wagner decorated Cuban Ambassador to Ecuador Benigo Perez, as well as the 39 members of the medical brigade working in Ecuador. The ceremony took place on Wednesday and was an act of recognition of the services provided by Operation Miracle.

The Cuban program began in Ecuador under the current government of President Alfredo Palacio, who will be handing over his post on January 15 to President-elect Rafael Correa.

The Ecuadorian official expressed Palacios gratitude to the government of Cuba for the healthcare program and recalled the historical ties of solidarity that exist between the two nations.

Ambassador Perez highlighted that more than 400,000 eye operations have been made in Latin American and Caribbean nations under the Operation Miracle program.

The Cuban diplomat underscored that his government and Ecuador are planning the installation of ophthalmologic centers in the cities of Esmeraldas, in the northwest of the country, and Machala in the south.

Source: Granma