p After proclaiming independence African countries had to tackle two] basic tasks in the sphere of public health: (1) establishing a ramified system of medical institutions and training medical personnel, and (2) combating the more widespread infectious and parasitic diseases. But they were seriously handicapped by lack of experience and qualified medical personnel as well as by inadequate funds.

p The European doctors and nurses who had worked in African countries in the colonial period began to leave them as soon as they became independent. And since there was no national medical personnel the local population was deprived of even elementary medical aid. This meant that there could be epidemics of infectious and parasitic diseases. In these circumstances the young African states sought assistance from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international organisations and also from the advanced friendly countries.

p In fulfilment of its internationalist duty, the Soviet Union began to help the newly free African states to build up their public health systems. The first Soviet doctors arrived in Algeria in 1963 at a time when the Algerian patriots were waging bitter battles against the colonialists in some parts of the country (Great and Little Kabylia, Annaba and Tlemcen). Working in the towns of Tizi-Ouzou, Fort-National, Annaba and Algiers, Soviet medical workers treated a large number of wounded and sick.

p Adhering to the lofty principles of humanism, the Executive Committee of the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the USSR in August 1960 sent a team 303 of 20 medical workers to Zaire who heroically fought against infectious and parasitic diseases, including the plague, pox, malaria, schistosomiases and amebiasis.

p Some members of this team worked in Stanleyville (now Kisangani), Buta and Bunia in the remote eastern region of the country. Soviet doctors immediately won the trust and respect of the local population. The local medical personnel who worked with them spoke with admiration about their activity, and Russian medical books which they left behind are kept in the libraries of some of the hospitals.

p In November and December 1965 a team of Soviet doctors stayed in the People’s Republic of the Congo where they vaccinated refugees from Angola who lived along the border between the Congo and Cabinda against the pox and polio. In this period they vaccinated approximately 5,000 people and tested 500 blood preparations for malaria. )

p In the past 20 years the Soviet Union’s links in the field of medicine with African countries expanded considerably and turned into a permanent form of cooperation which is subject to no political conditions and is mutually beneficial.

p The Soviet Union demonstrates the advantages and gains of its public health service on the basis of concrete facts. "Our country," said the USSR Minister of Health B. V. Petrovsky, "has accumulated vast experience in solving key problems of protecting the health of the people within the framework of the state system of public health. Without imposing our views on anyone, we hospitably open the doors of our institutes, hospitals, dispensaries and laboratories for all people who sincerely want to acquaint themselves with our public health system and use our rich experience in protecting people’s health."  [303•1 

p The Soviet Union provides considerable assistance to African countries in improving the medical care of the local population, building up the material and technical basis of public health, training national medical personnel, combating the more widespread infectious and parasitic diseases, and promoting national medical science. One of the most effective forms of cooperation in this sphere is the dispatch of Soviet doctors and other medical personnel for long-term work in African treatment-and-prophylactic institutions. In the second half of the 1970s approximately one thousand 304 Soviet medical specialists worked in developing countries, chiefly African, including Algeria, Zambia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, the Central African Republic, Chad and Ethiopia. Formerly the teams that were sent to African countries consisted of therapeutists, surgeons, obstetricians, gynecologists and pediatricians, that is, specialists in the basic medical professions. Of late, however, they include neuropathologists, ophthalmologists, anesthesiologists, urologists, cardiologists and doctors specialising in the more narrow branches of medicine. The medical, pedagogic and scientific activity of Soviet physicians is highly professional. It vividly demonstrates the achievements of the Soviet school of medicine and is highly appreciated in the African countries.

p An important role is played by the training of African medical personnel at Soviet medical institutes, medical schools, research centres, and doctors’ qualification improvement institutes. From 1949 to 1978, approximately 4,000 foreign students, mostly from developing African countries, graduated from Soviet medical and pharmaceutical institutes and schools. In the middle of the 1970s nearly 3,000 students from 105 countries were being trained in the USSR. They included students studying at medical institutes, people undergoing apprenticeship training, hospital physicians, post-graduate students, and students enrolled at secondary medical schools and preparatory departments.

p At the request of the governments of Algeria, Guinea, Zambia, Mali and other African countries, the Soviet Union is building and equipping medical schools and institutes and is sending specialists to lecture at medical departments of universities and at medical schools. The creation of facilities for training doctors and medium-level medical personnel on the spot is one of the more progressive forms of cooperation because it radically solves the question of the formation of national personnel. The establishment of medical departments and schools in African countries helps to promote the development of their medical science.

p The Soviet Union is also doing a great deal to help African countries strengthen the material and technical basis of medicine by building treatment-and-prophylactic institutions and medical schools either at its own expense or on mutually beneficial terms. With Soviet help hospitals 305 and polyclinics were built in Algeria, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, a maternity hospital in the People’s Republic of the Congo, and a TB hospital in the Sudan. In the mid1970s the Soviet Union helped to design, build and equip a general hospital in Nigeria, and also hospitals and polyclinics in the Sudan and other countries. Medical institutions that were built with Soviet assistance are used as models whose experience is passed on to other similar institutions on the continent.

p Some African governments have launched the establishment of national medical and pharmaceutical industries. The Soviet Union is helping them with deliveries of medical equipment, instruments, medicines and vaccines. It sent cholera vaccine to Togo, Upper Volta, Benin, Nigeria and other states. Soviet polio vaccine saved thousands of African children from this disease. In order to help banish this disease, in 1966 the USSR sent one million doses of this vaccine to Uganda; in 1969 it sent 150,000 doses to Benin and one million to Zaire. Thanks to the deliveries of Soviet vaccines and serums, African medical institutions are able to carry regular prophylactic measures and organise mass campaigns to combat infectious and parasitic diseases.

p Soviet specialists are engaged in extensive research in African countries. For instance, in Algeria, Mali, the People’sRepublic of the Congo and other countries they studied the role of parasitogenic diseases in the regional pathology of the population. The results of many of their studies were published in Soviet and foreign journals. Very important are dissertations of Soviet scientists on the clinical and epidemiological features of tropical diseases.

The participation of Soviet specialists in WHO and other international organisations offers the African public and medical workers additional opportunities to acquaint themselves with progress in Soviet health protection and medicine. An important role in the Soviet Union’s cooperation with African countries is played by the consultatory work of Soviet specialists and scientists.