The role of Cuban neurosurgeons in the development of neurosurgery in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia, a nation of more than 90 million people faces both great challenges and great opportunities in the pursuit of improved national access to health care. In addition to the daunting of socioeconomic challenges, the development of medical knowledge in Ethiopia also has been hindered by physician emigration. Approximately 15 percent of Ethiopian physicians now are practicing in the United States, Canada or Australia, with another significant portion serving other portions of Africa and the Middle East. Until the end of 1990, there were at least two Cuban neurosurgeons among the huge number of Cuban physicians and paramedics that constitute “Brigada Medica Cubana en Etiopia Socialista”. It was only by the end of the downfall of Socialist regime, three Ethiopian Neurosurgeons two of them trained in Cuba started providing basic Neurosurgical services. The evolution of the development of Neurosurgery is described in four periods or era in which the role of the Cuban part is strongly emphasized.