Pretoria, May 29 -A new group of 22 Cuban doctors arrived in South Africa on Sunday to give continuity to a cooperation agreement signed by the two countries'' leaders Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela two decades ago.

The physicians, in addition to other 320 doctors who are now rendering their services in this African nation, will start working in Free State, more than 465 kilometers south of Pretoria.

"They will help implement a public health system that is similar to the one we have in Cuba," Dr. Alberto Antonio Yanes, head of the Medical Mission in South Africa, told Prensa Latina.

Health authorities in this country and in eight of its nine provinces where collaborators are working are very interested in the application of the experiences of our healthcare system, Dr. Yanes stressed.

For South Africa, Cuba's contribution in health care, among other objectives, has been important to fight the scourge of infectious diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis, he said.

Those diseases are currently killing millions of people in the continent, as well as South Africa, Yanes noted.

Those professionals, who arrived at the Olvier Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Sunday, are mostly specialists in family medicine, as well as in anesthesia, pediatrics, gynecology and psychiatry.