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Cuban doctor Felix Baez Sarria, who contracted
Ebola while on an aid mission in Sierra Leona, second from right, smiles as he
poses for photos with his wife Vania Ferre, son Alejandro Felix, left, and Dr.
Jorge Perez upon arrival to Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014. (AP
Photo/Ramon Espinosa, Pool)
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Cuban doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was cured after
experimental treatment in a Swiss hospital vowed on Saturday to return to West
Africa and continue treating patients.
Baez,
43, is among 165 Cuban medical personnel sent to Sierra Leone to fight the
disease. He showed symptoms of Ebola on Nov. 16 and was brought to Switzerland
for treatment with the experimental drug ZMab.
"I
will finish what I started. I am returning to Sierra Leone," Felix Baez,
43, told reporters at Havana's Jose Marti airport shortly after landing, the
official website Cubadebate reported.
It
was not immediately clear if Cuban health officials would allow Baez to go back
to Africa.
Cuba
has won international praise for its contribution to fight the worst outbreak
of Ebola on record, which has killed more than 6,000 people. Some 200 doctors
and nurses are on standby for an Ebola assignment in West Africa, in addition
to the 256 already sent to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Health
Minister Roberto Morales and other ministry officials were at the airport to
greet Baez, who wore a blue T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of Geneva
University Hospitals, where he spent 16 days being treated in isolation.
Baez
was quickly reunited with his wife and eldest son, who is studying medicine.
"There
was celebration and happiness, hugs and kisses," said Jorge Perez, the
director of Havana's leading tropical diseases hospital, who traveled with Baez
from Geneva.
Soon
after arriving in Geneva on Nov. 20, Baez received the Canadian experimental
treatment ZMab, a precursor to the Ebola drug ZMapp, which has been used to
treat U.S. patients.
"Two
days afterwards he was already much better," Geneva's chief medical
officer, Jacques-André Romand, told Reuters, adding that the same drug had been
sent to Rome to treat an Italian doctor battling the virus.
Romand
added that at no time during Baez's treatment was there any risk of
transmission to the local population.
A
hospital spokeswoman said Baez received both ZMab and the untested flu drug
favipiravir, made by Japan's Fujifilm , which the World Health Organization
(WHO) has included on a list of potential Ebola treatments.
Out
of 138 healthcare workers who have caught the disease in Sierra Leone, 106 have
died, a much higher fatality rate than among health workers in neighboring
Guinea and Liberia, WHO data published on Wednesday showed.
Two
more doctors died in Sierra Leone on Friday, a government and hospital source
said.
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