KOFIH awards 9th Lee Jong-wook Award to Cuban doctors

The Korean Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) said Friday it conferred the 9th WHO’s Dr LEE Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health to Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, a Cuban contingent of doctors conducting relief activities in overseas disasters.

The Cuban Ministry of Health established Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade in 2005 to do good for people around the world and has swiftly dispatched medical personnel such as doctors and nurses to global scenes disasters, including Latin America.

Since its inception, it has dispatched 7,254 public health workers to 19 countries for 11 years, treating 3.5 million people and saving 80,000 lives.

In particular, it helped to put an end to Ebola, from its breakout in 2014 through its complete termination in May 2016, under the endorsement of World Health Organization.

The award, the so-called Nobel Prize in public healthcare, has produced nine recipients since 2009. Officials representing the health authorities of the 194 WHO member countries attended the ceremony, upholding the achievements and spirit of the late WHO Secretary-General Lee Jong-wook, the first Korean head of international organizations to promote public health. This year’s winner received a prize of $ 100,000 and a memorial plaque.

“The activities of Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, who showed hope through dedicated medical care in dangerous and unfavorable circumstances, are connected to the spirit of Dr. Lee Jong-wook, who called for doing the right thing in the right place,” KOFIH Chairman John Linton said.

Linton also stressed the need for making concerted efforts to continue to improve the health and well-being of people around the world.