Havana, April 27 (RHC-PL)-- Cuba currently provides medical treatment to 800 children from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, all affected by the April 1989, Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The Caribbean state was one of the first nations to respond to the tragedy and offer help in the form of rehabilitation treatment to those affected, most of them children. Cuban doctor Julio Medina, coordinator of the program, reported that to date the Cuban government has provided treatment to some 24,000 Chernobyl children.

Telesur reports that treatments last around 45 days for the vast majority of patients, though some stay up to a year at the Tarará health resort - a facility located 20 kilometers east of Havana, which was modified into a semi-hospital for victims of the nuclear accident.

Many children from the Chernobyl disaster suffer from thyroid cancer, leukemia, muscular atrophy, physiological and neurological disorders and alopecia.

On Tuesday, April 26, the United Nations General Assembly held a special session in honor of the anniversary of the disaster, which occurred in the then Soviet Union, now Ukrainian territory, during which the international community recalled the suffering of the victims and courage of those who responded to the emergency.