Havana, October 30 (RHC)-- The director of the U.S. Disease Control and Prevention Center, Nelson Arboleda, said during an expert meeting in Havana on Wednesday that his center is willing to cooperate with Cuba in the fight against the Ebola epidemic affecting western Africa.

The disease expert said that this is an exceptional opportunity to collaborate with the Cuban Health Ministry and with other countries and international organizations currently involved in the effort.

Arboleda said that his institution will find cooperation ways to back the initiative and will support expert missions from Latin America to the affected regions, through the Pan-American Health Organization.

The executive, an epidemiologist, offered U.S. labs to analyze samples and directly referred to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control.

Nelson Arboleda is participating a technical meeting of specialists and health directors on the prevention and fight against Ebola, called by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) under the slogan: “For a Region Free of Ebola.”

Over 10,000 Ebola cases have been reported in western Africa, particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, where more than two hundred Cuban health professionals are offering their services.