7-16-09, 9:56 am

HAVANA, Cuba, July 15 (acn) Over 25,000 health professionals will graduate this year in Cuba, in the largest graduation ceremony ever in the history of medicine on the island, which will be dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

Dr. Roberto González, Deputy Minister for Teaching and Research with the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), told the press on Wednesday that these new professionals conclude their degree courses in the specialties of Medicine, Nursing, Health Technology, Health Psychology and Dentistry.

Over 4,700 out of the total figure are doctors, including some 1,000 youngsters from 62 nations, specified González, and explained that the graduation is also dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine and the 20th anniversary of the Mario Muñoz Monroy Movement.

He highlighted that, over the last six years, the roll of Medical Sciences has increased six times and that of professors eight, and that the number of Cuban physicians who have graduated over the last five decades add up to 70,000.

This has made it possible to show health indicators comparable to those of developed nations, like infant mortality rate, which was 4.7 for every 1,000 live births in 2008, when life expectancy raised to almost 80 years.

González highlighted the advantages of the new pedagogical model for Medical Sciences, according to which over 75 percent of students are trained at university policlinics. This method has proved its superiority as compared to the traditional one, since it makes the acquisition of knowledge and skills and research work easier.

The graduation ceremonies will take place from July 24 to August 4, and from that they on, they will be held at Cuban medical universities in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala, Guyana, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Eritrea, Bolivia and South Africa, among other countries.

From the Cuban News Agency