This page of the Cuba Solidarity Web Site is devoted to providing news on developments in Cuba's uniquely resourceful health care system.
Perhaps the most important lesson that can come from studying public health in Cuba is the level of creativity, innovation and success that can be brought to bear to the benefit of a population's health through a simple but fundamental decision to make healthcare one of the highest priorities of a society and an economy.
The news daily pointed out that the reduced infant mortality rate is the result of the selfless and hard work of the island's health professionals.
Tuesday's Granma daily also says that during 1999, 104 more infants were saved than the previous year -- adding that for the first time in history, all of the island's provinces registered less than eight. Villa Clara heads the island's provinces with less than five for every one thousand live births.
Only 20 countries have an infant mortality rate lower than Cuba's, where
infant and children's mortality figures as well as the maternal death rate
were also reduced during 1999.
The students were on-board a Cubana airliner that crashed on December 21st while attempting to land at Guatemala City's International Airport. Eighteen of the more than 300 passengers on that ill-fated flight were killed, including the Cuban pilot and flight crew. While the actual cause of the crash is still being investigated, the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer were praised for having taken steps to shut down the plane's turbines and fuel supply just seconds before the fatal crash -- thus saving hundreds of lives.
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage welcomed the Guatemalan students at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport in the name of President Fidel Castro. Speaking on behalf of the medical students, a representative of the Guatemalan students, Carlos Flores, said that they are proud of Cuba's educational project -- granting them scholarships to study free-of-charge.
Also present at the ceremony were Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque and Health Minister Carlos Dotres. The Cuban health minister praised
the Guatemalan students, calling them "an inspiration for all of Latin
America."
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Benjamin Ortiz and Cuba's ambassador to that South American country, Rene Castro, made the announcement in Quito during a meeting at the foreign ministry.
The Cuban diplomat said that the Ecuadorian people greatly appreciate Havana's gesture of solidarity. He announced that in the coming days, a Cuban medical brigade will arrive in that South American country to train area residents of the Amazon region in first aid and primary medicine.
The Cuban ambassador to Ecuador stated that areas of cooperation with
that country also include sports, education and culture -- adding that
bilateral cooperation is expected to increase in the year 2000.
Cuba gives free medical studies to 1,913 students from 18 countries
in the region at the new Latin American School for Medical Sciences in
Havana. Dotres admitted the country still had shortages of medicines, largely
due to the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, but he said the situation
was improving slowly.
Panamanian Health Minister Jose Manuel Teran -- currently visiting the island -- explained that other projects to be carried out by Panama in the year 2000 deal with the fight against AIDS and a vaccination program as well as reforms to the nation's primary health care system.
The top Panamanian health official's agenda on the island includes meetings
with his Cuban counterpart, Dr. Carlos Dotres, and other high-ranking Cuban
government officials as well as visits to various Cuban medical institutions.
The program also includes visits to mental health clinics in the Havana municipality of Regla and natural and traditional medicine centers, the 10th of October Hospital and a Homeopathy Pharmacy.
The U.S. medical delegation, headed by Dr. Hunter Patch Adams, is also interested in learning about the professional level of the island's health services and the use of traditional and natural medicine in Cuba.
The ambulance includes an electrocardiogram machine and oxygen supplies along with other medical equipment for emergency services in Santa Clara which has a population of over 250,000 inhabitants.
ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS OF CUBA WILL DONATE 70 KILOGRAMS OF MEDICINES TO HAVANA'S CARDIOVASCULAR HOSPITAL
Havana, December 8(RHC)-- The President and founder of the Association of Friends of Cuba, Mario Ramseier, will donate 70 kilograms of medicines to Havana's Cardiovascular Hospital.
Ramseier heads the Austrian institution which, thanks to the support of Swiss, Italian, Canadians and other citizens in solidarity with Cuba have helped with the refurbishing of the ontological wards of the Juan Manuel Marquez Pediatric Hospital in the Cuban capital.
The Cuban Health Ministry is currently refurbishing the William Soler Pediatric Hospital Ward, which also receives financial support from the Austrian embassy in Havana.
Last November 30th, the Association of Friends of Cuba -- in coordination with the island's Health Ministry -- held an activity at the Juan Manuel Marquez Hospital with the participation of some of the island's outstanding athletes including Javier Sotomayor, Ivan Pedroso and Luis Mariano Delis.
The President of the Association of Friends of Cuba says that his institution
strongly condemns Washington's blockade against the island.
MEMBERS OF THE CONFEDERATION OF CUBAN WORKERS DONATED OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS TO HEALTH PROGRAM LAST MONTH
Havana, December 7(RHC)-- Members of the Confederation of Cuban Workers in Havana donated over one million dollars of their tips to the National Health Program during the month of November.
During an activity on Monday at Havana's Hotel Nacional, 21 workers and 23 work centers were recognized for their efforts to help finance cancer research.
Since this solidarity effort began, workers from the city of Havana
have collected over four million dollars, earmarked for the fight against
cancer, as well as the mother-child program and the fight against cancer.
INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON WORKERS HEALTH UNDERWAY IN HAVANA
Havana, December 6(RHC)-- The Second International Encounter on Workers Health opened its doors in Havana on Monday. The event -- held every two years -- will focus this year on social security, professional and occupational diseases, reasons leading to early retirement and environmental risks, among other issues.
The Institute for Workers Health, created in 1977, is the event's main sponsor. The institute is headed by Dr. Emigdio Leon.
The Second International Encounter on Workers Health winds up on Friday, December 10th, and is being attended by delegates from 16 countries.
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON PLANT GENETIC ENGINEERING UNDERWAY IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL
Havana, December 6(RHC)-- Some 200 specialists from 45 countries are taking part in an International Symposium on Plant Genetic Engineering, underway at Havana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
During the opening ceremony on Monday, Dr. Mac Fon Montagu from Belgium received an Honorary Doctorate granted by the University of Havana.
The international symposium on plant genetic engineering is dedicated
to this outstanding scientist and is scheduled to wind up on Friday.
CUBA CELEBRATES DAY OF LATIN AMERICAN MEDICINE
Havana, December 3(RHC)-- Cuba celebrated the Day of Latin American Medicine by announcing that the overall infant mortality rate for the island has dropped to below seven per 1000 live births. This puts Cuba once more on a par with the most developed nations of the world.
The figure for Havana -- which previously had the worst record on the island at 9.2 last year, has dropped to 6.7. The 1998 average on the island was 7.2. It is expected to be approximately 6.2 by the end of the year.
The reduced level of infant mortality is due to the very extensive pre and post-natal care that the Cuban health care system follows. Women experiencing pre-natal problems such as possible risky pregnancies or premature births are housed in special care units that operate as community homes where the women are monitored 24-hours-a-day until they give birth.
The Cuban health care system is the envy of the Third World and, if
not for the shortage of medicines due mostly to the U.S. blockade of the
island, would be on the same level as most industrialized nations.
CUBAN DOCTORS RETURN TO HAVANA FROM HAITI
Havana, December 2(RHC)-- The first contingent of Cuban doctors who worked in Haiti for 11 months is back home. The group -- made up of 71 doctors, nurses and technical personnel -- arrived in Santiago de Cuba on Wednesday.
The Cuban health personnel treated poor residents in areas severely damaged by Hurricane Georges, which hit that Caribbean nation last year. Thanks to a cooperation agreement, Cuban doctors and nurses are working in several countries around the region, including Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The Cuban government established the Latin American School of Medicine,
where Central American and Caribbean students are studying free-of-charge.
After they graduate, the doctors will return to their respective countries.
CUBA HAS RECORD LOW GROWTH IN HIV/AIDS
Havana, December 2(RHC)-- Fourteen years after creating the island's
AIDS Control and Prevention Program, Cuba has a very slow growth in the
number of people affected by the epidemic. According to Cuban Health Minister
Carlos Dotres, the work done in epidemiological control, integral care,
research and education has contributed to this result.
Doctor Dotres said, however, that more could be done in the areas of epidemiological control and care provided to people affected by the HIV virus. The Cuban health minister pointed out that worldwide, the AIDS epidemic has claimed the lives of 16 million people and that two - Thirds of those affected by the HIV virus live in Africa. Since 1986, more than 2800 Cubans have been infected with the virus and nearly 900 of them have developed full-blown AIDS. Some 650 have died.
Carlos Dotres emphasized that Cuba is the only Third World nation which
has been working on an AIDS vaccine since 1992. Due to the work carried
out by Cuban health authorities, the United Nations will continue supporting
research on the island.
PANAMANIAN PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL VISITS THE CUBAN CAPITAL
Havana, December 1(RHC)-- The President of the Panamanian Legislative Assembly, Enrique Garrido, is in Havana to attend the Fourth Bilateral Interparliamentary meeting, set for December 2nd and 3rd. Garrido's agenda includes a review of bilateral relations, which he described as "excellent."
During his stay on the island, Garrido and his accompanying delegation
will be meeting with top government officials and will visit the Latin
American School of Medicine and the Carlos J. Finlay Institute which mainly
works in the production of vaccines. The Finlay Institute has successfully
developed vaccines against Hepatitis B and meningitis among others.
BIOTECHNOLOGY '99 UNDERWAY IN HAVANA
Havana, November 30(RHC)-- Biotechnology '99 is underway at Havana's
Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Over 1100 delegates,
representing 41 countries and international institutions, are participating
in Biotechnology '99 -- an annual scientific event that focuses this year
on the medical applications of biotechnology.
Through master conferences, plenary sessions, symposiums and workshops,
participants will deal with issues such as vaccines, new immunization strategies,
dengue and AIDS, new diagnostic technologies, the development of new drugs,
recombinant antibiotics and therapies for cancer and self-immuned diseases
through antibiotics.
A commercial exhibition has also been scheduled as part of Biotechnology
'99, in which over 30 companies are representing nations such as Britain,
Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Cuba, among others.
Biotechnology '99 winds up on Friday, December 3rd -- Day of Latin American
Medicine.
NEW CUBAN MEDICAL BRIGADE ARRIVES IN HONDURAS
Tegucigalpa, November 30(RHC)-- Another Cuban medical brigade arrived
in Honduras on Monday as part of a health cooperation program offered by
Cuba to that Central American nation.
The new medical team, made up of 39 doctors, nurses and other health specialists, will offer their services free-of-charge in remote areas of Honduras.
On September 30th, a Cuban medical team made up of 107 health specialists
returned to Havana from Honduras, after working in Honduras for 11 months.
During that period, the Cuban doctors treated 800,000 people, performed
9000 surgical operations and helped deliver 577 babies in remote, mountainous
areas of the country.
Philanthrophy Journal On Line
11/29/1999
http://pnnonline.org/technology/cuba1129.cfm
By John T. Moore
Santa Clara, Calif.
With the collapse of Communist governments across Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, Cuba's commerce also faltered. While the country's economy was being redesigned, resources previously allocated to Cuba's public health system began to disappear.
Through frequent visits to Cuba, David Wald and Juan Reardon had grown impressed with the health system and wanted to do anything they could to support the needs of hospitals and clinics on the island nation.
That was the goal of Wald and Reardon's nonprofit,USA/Cuba InfoMed, which delivers computers to the country's medical society.
USA/Cuba InfoMed was established in 1995 in response to the InfoMed program launched by Cuba's Ministry of Health in 1992. Cuba's InfoMed was designed to link all of the country's hospitals, clinics, medical school, medical libraries and research centers through an electronic network.
The Cuban network provides information the medical community needs to sustain Cuba's health system. Although the backbone of Cuba's InfoMed is in place, there were no computers available to link each facility. No money is being spent on the computers, especially in a time when antibiotics were in short supply, says Reardon.
That's where the Santa Clara, Calif.-based USA/Cuba InfoMed helps. Hundreds of volunteers, most from California, have collected, fixed, packed and shipped computers to Cuba. The volunteers also have been raising funds to ship the equipment. So far 1,400 computers have been sent.
Without full access to the information these computers can supply, Reardon says that medicine in Cuba becomes guesswork instead of science. Cuba's pledge of health care for all citizens "demands access to medical information."
The computers allow direct access by physicians, medical students, researchers and family doctors to major medical databases in Cuba and around the world. From those databases, doctors can learn where to get medical supplies, scarce medications and special medical services, Reardon says.
The technology allows the medical community to keep in touch via e-mails that can spread meeting notices and public health alerts.
With about 70,000 medical professionals, USA/Cuba InfoMed estimates that the Cuban medical community needs 10,000 computers. But those computers don't just help the medical community.
"The knowledge and know-how emerging from the introduction of these new technologies in Cuba is reflected also in other areas of Cuban society and it extends also to other countries of the Caribbean and the world," Reardon says.
Raising money to ship the equipment presents a particular challenge for USA/Cuba InfoMed. Reardon says that Cuba remains an area of uncertainty for potential donors. The "ignorance" that exists about Cuba, however, is changing.
"We could do a lot better if we had a fraction of the funds that an organization like ours should really have," says Wald.
Cuba's Minister of Health estimated that USA/Cuba InfoMed has a budget of $150,000 per year, when its budget is really only $15,000.
Lending to the public's uncertainty about Cuba is the 38-year-old embargo the U.S. government has placed on Cuba. That blockade makes the nonprofit's task costly, difficult and more of a harassment, Reardon says.
It is that reason that makes it cumbersome for USA/Cuba InfoMed to get a license from the U.S. government to supply materials for a "good will" mission. Finding a ship to carry the computers is also difficult, since any vessel traveling to Cuba cannot dock at any U.S. harbor for six months afterwards, Reardon says.
This means the computers are sent in a cargo container to Montreal, where a Cuban shipping company picks it up and sends it to the island.
Wald says ending the Cuban embargo of is one of the primary focuses of USA/Cuba InfoMed's work. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce recently approved the nonprofit's license to supply Pentium computers to Cuba. Previously, only 486-chip computers were allowed.
Wald credits the members of Congress who wrote letters urging the Secretary of Commerce to allow USA/Cuba InfoMed to send the computers to the country.
Another unique part of the most recent license is that for the first
time, the group is able to send their aid directly to the Cuban government,
rather than just to an agency. Since there's no such thing as private medicine
in Cuba, if the nonprofit couldn't send the equipment to the government,
then their help "wouldn't work."
John T. Moore can be reached at
johntm@mindspring.com
CUBA GOES GREEN
Government-Run Vegetable Gardens Sprout in Cities Across Island
By Serge F. Kovaleski
Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, November 26, 1999; Page A29
HAVANA-The concrete sprawl of Havana seemed an incongruous setting for Consuelo Torres to be clutching a clump of organically grown and freshly picked spinach. But she had just been shopping at one of the many state-run urban vegetable gardens developed in vacant lots here in the capital and in other cities and towns across Cuba. The gardens are part of a new effort by the socialist government to ease food shortages and nutritional problems that have beset the nation since the collapse of its patron, the Soviet Union, in 1991.
"Being able to buy more vegetables is a health issue. Now we can take in more of the vitamins our bodies need and give a little more balance to our diets," Torres, 50, said on a recent afternoon while standing on Havana's busy Fifth Avenue in front of a plot of crops in what used to be a garbage dump. "There is still not enough food to go around, but the gardens certainly help the situation."
Torres is not the only one keen on the idea. This Caribbean island has what is believed to be the most extensive urban agriculture program in Latin America, with more than 2,730 government operated gardens checkering the country's 169 municipalities. They employ about 22,000 workers and sell two dozen varieties of vegetables and herbs directly to consumers at prices as much as half that of market levels.
On a recent afternoon at an urban garden in the shadows of Revolution Square in Havana, Juana Vega, 55, was relishing the idea that she had just bought carrots, eggplant and garlic for her family with relative ease. "Having these gardens set up in the city is a form of creative help," she said. "It is creative on the part of the government, which I feel is trying to find ways to solve Cuba's problems and improve our lives where they can."
During an official visit here last week, Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Chavez, discussed the gardens with President Fidel Castro. He said he is considering a similar strategy to make food staples more available and provide another source of employment in metropolitan areas in a country where an estimated 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.
In addition to the urban plots, the Cuban program has given rise to 4,347 larger and more intensive gardens, generally located on the outskirts of cities and towns and producing fruit in addition to vegetables and herbs.
This country of 11.5 million people has been forced to pursue unconventional food production since the former Soviet Union stopped its annual largess of billions of dollars a decade ago. The donations from Moscow included bountiful amounts of agricultural products and farming supplies, such as fertilizer, pesticides, animal feed, seeds and fuel. The vegetables grown in urban gardens are for the most part organic,largely due to the dearth of chemical crop treatments. While playing up the health benefits of organic produce, the Castro government casts much of the blame for food scarcities on a 37-year- old economic embargo maintained by the United States. But the problem also stems from inefficiency and a lack of individual incentives within the state-dominated agricultural system.
In contributing to the slightly improved food situation, the urban gardens--called agroponicos or organoponicos--have been able to circumvent many of the logistical hurdles and other problems that afflict agriculture in the countryside. There is no need to transport vegetables grown on these municipal plots because people buy them on the spot. That eliminates virtually all the cumbersome state bureaucracy that usually stands between farmers and consumers.
"This means fewer post-harvest losses because no transportation or storage is involved and there is less handling of vegetables," said Fernando Robayo, the representative in Cuba for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
On weekends in Havana, long lines spill onto the sidewalks in front of urban gardens, where customers wait to buy vegetables that are fresher and apparently more bountiful than in state markets, which on any given morning can run out of produce in a matter of hours. The urban gardens, which are equipped with relatively modern irrigation systems that help generate high yields, have been one of the most successful of a series of government initiatives to decentralize agricultural production from large state farms to municipal and individual levels.
Many state enterprises, schools and hospitals grow some of their own food and raise livestock, while the government has helped thousands of families and individuals to set up home gardens, plant fruit trees and raise chickens and rabbits.
Some neighborhoods produce up to 30 percent of their food. More than 540,000 tons of food were produced for consumption by Havana residents last year. Furthermore, recent planning laws have made the use of land for food production a priority, although there are many needy areas where urban gardens have yet to be established.
Overall, the government estimates that 117,000 people work in urban agriculture and that the gardens account for about half the vegetables grown in Cuba. Officials said urban gardens are expected to increase production by more than a third next year, reflecting a policy of linking wages to productivity.
"These gardens are important in a labor sense. They are not cooperatives and they are not completely state run in that we can pay workers a little more," explained Alvaro Garcia, who is in charge of an urban garden in the Miramar section of Havana. While improved yields from the gardens should allow much of the countryto meet the recommended daily allowance of 300 grams of vegetables per person in 2000, that will not be the case for Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the largest and second largest cities where 3.2 million inhabitants reside. The two metropolitan areas will have to rely on traditional sources of vegetables such as cooperatives and state farms.
Cuba, whose people continue to receive government rations four decades after Castro came to power in a revolution, has yet to recover from the dramatic decline in food availability of at least 60 percent that took place between 1991 and 1995. Carlos Lage, a vice president of the ruling Council of State, who has been in charge of efforts to resuscitate Cuba's depressed economy, recently told a meeting of municipal leaders that "the food situation is still insufficient . . . but there has been some progress."
(c) Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
Westport, Connecticut-based PWN Exhibicon International L.L.C., has confirmed that the U.S.Medical/Healthcare Exhibition will be held in the city of Havana from Tuesday, 25 January 2000, to Saturday, 29 January 2000.
The U.S. Medical/healthcare Exhibition has been licensed by the Office
of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the
Treasury in Washington, D.C. Individuals authorized to participate in the
U.S. Medical/Healthcare Exhibition include executives and representatives
of United States-based companies and their subsidiaries that manufacture,
distribute, market, and retail, health care sector informational materials,
medical equipment, medical instruments, medical supplies, medicated products,
medicines, and pharmaceuticals. For information regarding participation,
sponsorship, and costs, please contact Mr. Peter W. Nathan at telephone
(203) 222-8660 or Facsimile telephone (203) 222-8335.
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR SURVEILLANCE'99 WINDS UP IN HAVANA
Havana, November 26(RHC)-- Surveillance '99, an international event sponsored by the Public Health Ministry and the Cuban Hygiene and Epidemeology Society, among other institutions, wound up Friday at Havana's Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute.
From November 22nd through the 26th, some 200 experts from 11 countries: Denmark, Spain, Cuba, Peru, Colombia and Argentina, among them, gathered at Havana's Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute for Surveillance '99, an international symposium on health surveillance.
Among the issues debated were: surveillance in primary health care, environmental health, information of experts in health surveillance and informatics on public health surveillance.
Surveillance '99 was organized with the purpose of updating health surveillance
concepts and providing the possibility for experts, mainly from Latin America,
to exchange their experiences in programs and work areas in this field.
We waited at InfoMed HQ from 9:30 until around 11:30, when the truck finally showed up. The fellow running the forklift took a little drive up and down these back streets near the Havana Libre to kill time waiting. The entire staff, many wearing InfoMed t-shirts ("En busqueda de un sueño") had lined the front patio, chatting and waiting expectantly. Eventually they all drifted off to their offices, and came running once the truck was parked out front.
InfoMed Director Pedro Urra posed at the container doors with members of the team, as everyone crowded around for a first look inside.
They broke the seal on the door, swung it open, and were greeted by sheets of plywood covered with slogans of solidarity and the signatures of the U.S. team. After still more photos, the sheets were lined up side-by-side on the sidewalk, against the concrete wall in front of InfoMed, where neighbours walking stopped to check out the colourful display.
As you might imagine, the street (partially blocked by the container) soon filled with interested people. One young woman, a Chicago student living in Costa Rica, stopped by to chat - it was the second day of her Cuban vacation, and she was delighted to learn that a project benefitting Cuba's health care system had support in the United States.
Everyone pitched in, carrying some boxes by hand, clearing the way for the forklift to begin moving material by the pallet-load. Eyes were wide at the sight of pallets full of shrink-wrapped computers and monitors. The atmosphere was festive, with a determination to get the material safely stowed away in the basement storage.
Tis was a treat for me, as it had been three-and-a-half years ince my last visit to the InfoMed building. So much has changed - the node has outgrown its closet, and now occupies what was the meeting room back in the Spring of '96. The ground floor boasts a public-access lab for local medical researchers and doctors. Out back, space is being cleared and a patio being developed to give staff and visitors a comfortable place to hang out and socialize. I was also given a preview of the soon-to-be-debuted new homepage for InfoMed, a redesign that cleans up the layout of an already impressive website.
----------------------------------------------------------
Mark Rushton
is in Cuba until mid-January, 2000, researching community networking initiatives
with a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
A member of the Nova Scotia-Cuba Assoc. (http://www.nscuba.org)
----------------------------------------------------------
Canada: 5669 Inglis St. Apt. 5, Halifax, N.S., B3H 1K2, (902) 429-5547
In Cuba: Calle 25 #1167, e/ 8 y 10, Apto. 14. (537) 30-1490 Email: Mark@jcce.org.cu
(in Cuba) or Mark@chebucto.ns.ca (Canada)
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE USE OF LASER IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY BEGINS IN HAVANA
Havana, November 24(RHC)-- An International Convention on the use of laser in medicine and surgery began Wednesday at Havana's International Convention Center.
Sponsored by Havana's Surgical and Medical Research Center, the convention comprises the XIII Congress of the International Society on the use of Laser in Medicine and Surgery, as well as the 9th Ibero-American Congress and the Third Latin American Encounter in the field.
The event, which runs through Friday, gathers doctors, physicians and
dentists, as well as bio-engineers and other medical specialists from some
30 nations.
EMOTIONAL FAREWELL TO CUBAN MEDICAL PERSONNEL IN SMALL NICARAGUAN TOWN Managua, November 18(RHC)-- Residents and local authorities of the Nicaraguan municipality of Pueblo Nuevo offered an emotional farewell to the Cuban medical personnel who offered their services free-of-charge in that region.
The Cuban medical brigade arrived in the municipality of Pueblo Nuevo, located in the Department of Esteli, just a few days after Hurricane Mitch hit the area last year.
During the farewell activity, local officials in Pueblo Nuevo praised the work of the Cuban doctors and awarded them with the "Remigio Casco Community Service Order." The mayor of Pueblo Nuevo said that there are no words to describe the importance of the Cuban medical personnel's solidarity with the Nicaraguan people.
He also thanked non-governmental organizations in Nicaragua like the Augusto Cesar Sandino Foundation, which have contributed funds and supplies to the Cuban doctors during their one year stay in the Central American country.
The head of the 4th Cuban medical brigade in Haiti, Jose Luis Manso, said that one million 500,000 Haitian children between the age of nine months and 5 years will be vaccinated against measles.
The vaccination campaign will end next December 17th and is sponsored
by the Pan American Health Organization, as well as the governments of
Haiti and Cuba.
November 3, 1999
CUBAN PRODUCT TO AVOID HANTA VIRUS IN BOLIVIA - LA PAZ.- A highly
effective Cuban Product, of low cost and risk, is being used in this capital
in a wide operation to exterminate rodents, as a preventive measure against
a Hanta virus outbreak. The product, a biodegradable poison called Bio
rat, is the weapon used by the La Paz Health Department, after proving
its efficiency in a previous anti-rat campaign. Bio rat, which does not
produce pollution and is not dangerous for men or animals, has a slow effect,
giving the rodents Salmonela. A retarded effect is necessary in order to
eliminate a colony, because if rats see one dying after eating something,
the others stop eating it.
By Rob Zaleski
Throughout their hectic but stimulating 21/2-week visit to Madison, Cuban pediatricians Odila Quiros Viqueira and Yamina Rivero Fernandez took great pains not to say anything that might offend anyone.
For instance, when asked their impressions of the U.S. health care system -- and the fact that there are 44 million Americans who don't have health insurance --the women diplomatically responded through an interpreter that, although "this is very unfortunate in a country so prosperous,'' they don't know enough about the circumstances to offer intelligent opinions.
They even tried to smile while drinking coffee provided by their various hosts -- although they both confided with laughter late last week that U.S. coffee is "the worst ever. Far too weak!''
But on the few occasions they were asked about the effects the 38-year-old U.S. economic embargo has had on their country, the women -- who returned to Cuba on Sunday -- were unable to contain their exasperation and anger.
Anything so immoral, so unjust, "is condemned to fail,'' said Fernandez, a robust woman of 34, who was married earlier this year.
"The models we've been able to create in spite of it -- not only in health, but in education and athletics -- have won the world's sympathy,'' she said. "And the embargo will soon be history.''
Added the 47-year-old Viqueira, "It's an outdated political action. Everyone knows that. It will disappear soon. It must disappear soon.''
The women practice in Camaguey, a thriving city of 290,000 in central Cuba, and their visit was sponsored by the Madison-Camaguey Sister Cities Association.
They said there's no question that the embargo has had an adverse effect on the Cuban economic structure.
But it has not brought the socialist regime of Fidel Castro to its knees, as originally intended -- and, in fact, has only strengthened the resolve of the Cuban people, they maintained.
And there's no better example, they said, than the Cuban health care system, which despite the obvious financial constraints -- which limits their access to high-tech medical equipment -- has developed into an international model.
Not only do all citizens receive complete medical care at neighborhood clinics scattered throughout the country, but all health care decisions are made by medical professionals -- not insurance companies or so-called bean counters, as is sometimes the case in the United States.
More impressive yet, there's one doctor for every 400 citizens in Cuba, compared to one for every 2,000 citizens in this country. What's more, there is a major hospital and a variety of specialty hospitals in each of Cuba's 14 provinces, they pointed out, and all neighborhood clinics have facilities strictly for pregnant women.
That helps explain why Cuba's infant mortality rate of 7.1 per 1,000 births -- compared to 17 per 1,000 births in the U.S. -- is among the lowest in the world, the women said. (In the Caribbean as a whole, the rate is 33 per 1,000 births.)
Viqueira noted that foreigners often ask, "How do Cuban physicians achieve so much with so little?'' The answer, she said, is really quite simple. "We are very organized,'' Viqueira said. She patted her heart and added, "And we work very, very hard.''
Even so, the embargo clearly has made life in Cuba more difficult, both women acknowledged.
To cite just one example, Viqueira said that Cuba in recent years has undertaken an ambitious campaign to inoculate the country's 11 million residents against the bacterial agent haemophilus influenza, which can cause mental retardation and blindness, and can be fatal to young children.
If the embargo weren't in effect, Cuba could have purchased the vaccine and syringes from the United States. (Miami, she said, is just a 90-minute flight from Havana.) Instead, it was forced to spend $2.5 million -- or five times what the supplies would have cost in the United States -- to have syringes shipped from China, and to purchase the vaccine from Italy.
The women, who also spent a week in Washington, D.C., and were introduced to President Clinton, agreed that there were three major highlights from their visit: learning about and viewing the high-tech equipment that's available to U.S. physicians; the genuine warmth and vitality of the Madison people; and the stunning beauty of Madison's isthmus.
"There are no lakes in Cuba,'' Viqueira noted. "Your city is unlike anything we have seen.''
Actually, there was a fourth highlight the women agreed with a burst of embarrassed laughter.
"The hot fudge sundaes at Michael's!'' Fernandez exclaimed.
(c) 1999 The Capital Times
The San Diego Union-Tribune
October 10, 1999, Sunday
S.D. eyes biotech alliances in Cuba; Island called eager for joint
medical research
David E. Graham
Peering past an economic embargo that has separated Cuba from the United States for almost four decades, some San Diego County business and academic leaders are trying to forge a special relationship with the Communist nation.
Their focus: biomedical research.
It might seem a surprising alliance at first, one with a Caribbean island more fabled for cigars, rum and revolutionary fervor.
But in exploratory conversations in Havana, the San Diegans discovered that their Cuban counterparts are eager to pursue alliances involving medical research and pharmaceutical development, which also are among the San Diego region's strengths.
Cuba, known for its attention to education and health care, now Markets medicines to Latin America and Europe, and Fidel Castro's government regards biotechnology products as another way to bolster the country's struggling economy.
Just this summer, the credibility of Cuba's biomedical industry was enhanced when British pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham said it would market a Cuban vaccine for meningitis B, an inflammation of the brain.
Local companies could start building limited markets in Cuba now, experts say, because some sales and testing of pharmaceuticals and supplies are permitted by the embargo.
"Once the economic blockade finally ends, if San Diego businesses and universities are not at the head of the line developing working relationships, then we'll be at the back of the line," said Steven Loughrin-Sacco, who directs San Diego State University's international business program.
"Biotechnology is an obvious, natural potential alliance to start with," said Loughrin-Sacco, who helped organize the San Diego group that visited Havana in April.
But the relationship that some people here envision with the nation of 11 million should not end there, says Gonzalo Lopez, manager of the city of San Diego's office of international trade and technology.
If the American embargo on trade were rescinded, San Diego companies could assist with the island's growing tourism industry and supply telecommunications services, business services and environmental technologies, he said. Lopez attended the April meetings in Havana with Cuban university and government officials.
"We need to encourage representatives here so they can assess what the Cubans have," Lopez said.
After Castro
The overtures come as many American political and business leaders are arguing for more normalized relations with Cuba, at least as a way to influence developments there after Castro, now 73, leaves power.
While most forms of U.S. trade with Cuba are prohibited under the embargo that took effect in 1962, two years after Castro seized power, some are not.
Limited sales of medicines and health-care supplies and some testing and evaluating of American medical products are allowed, as long as a license is obtained from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Loughrin-Sacco and Lopez are consulting with biotech and other business leaders here and marshaling a return mission to Cuba planned for January, a trip that requires a Treasury license.
Experts in the biotechnology industry have been recruited for that trip to examine the Cuba operations in detail, said Stephen Dahms, an SDSU professor who directs the entire California State University system's biotechnology program.
Those experts hope to meet with researchers and tour facilities to learn what Cuba might have to offer. Possibilities include shared research, development of medicines and medical technologies, and marketing or even testing of American-made products within Cuba, he said.
Joe Panetta, the executive director of BioCom San Diego, the industry group representing this area's biotechnology companies, said the approach to Cuba is novel here but worthwhile.
"We know Cuba over the years has invested a large part of its capital resources in biotechnology and medical research," Panetta said. "It's definitely worth considering."
SDSU already has a formal tie in Cuba.
Loughrin-Sacco announced in May that SDSU and the University of Havana had agreed to exchange business students. That is scheduled to start in January.
"But that's just peanuts for the Cubans," Loughrin-Sacco said. "What they want from San Diego is exchanges in biotechnology."
Cuban tourism
Since the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, which subsidized the Cuba economy, the Caribbean nation has relied increasingly on an expanding tourism industry to move beyond its mainstays of sugar and tobacco sales and mining. Biotechnology could emerge as another key pillar.
Even though Cuba has entered partnerships with European companies in recent years, splitting profits in tourism and other industries, Dahms noted that any overtures in biomedical research would be complicated by Cuba's "closed society," where decision-making is centralized and different from what American companies might be accustomed to.
Easing the trade embargo would also probably be necessary before a Robust commerce could flourish, he added.
U.S. Treasury Department officials say that no San Diego area Companies have a license to trade with Cuba. Even so, interest exists among potential San Diego partners.
Erkki Ruoslahti, director of the Burnham Institute, a biological research lab in La Jolla, praised Cuba's medical research.
"They've been able to develop some real biotechnology there, in spite of their problems," he said. "They actually had some successes, particularly in designing vaccines."
In addition to the meningitis B vaccine, Cuba also markets treatments for hepatitis B, and a drug to lower cholesterol, as well as diagnostics and materials used in research and pharmaceutical production. It has also developed a test for dengue fever, and sells an anti-rodent agent in Asia.
The Cubans also report developing an interferon and wound-healing compound, and conducting research into heart-disease treatments and an AIDS vaccine.
Sheldon Hendler, president of San Diego's Vyrex Corp., is upbeat about the Cuban work.
"I think the opportunities can be enormous because they have some very fine physician-scientists in Cuba," Hendler said. "I think it's one of the most loaded, important relationships in biology ever."
Hendler likened the situation there today to a forest, rich with new flowers and fruits, overlooked and forbidden. Go now, he said, "and you have it all for yourself."
Growing contacts
But Cuba may not be overlooked much longer. And that perception has added a sense of urgency to Loughrin-Sacco's efforts.
Even so, Philip Brenner, a Latin American scholar at American University, says small, incremental changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba this year are meaningful.
Cuba's Latin culture beneath the Communist veil has captured the imagination of growing numbers in recent years, and cultural exchanges among musicians, artists, scholars and athletic teams have proliferated.
U.S. congressmen and mayors have gone on fact-finding missions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called for more normalized trade with Cuba.
Cuban biotechnology also is gaining attention.
The SmithKline Beecham deal for the meningitis drug not only lent credibility to the island's work but also required and received U.S. Treasury Department approval because the Belgian lab where the drug will be made is owned by an American company. It represented a rare American approval for the marketing of a Cuban drug.
The first American trade exhibition in Havana in almost four decades, one for health-care companies, has been approved for January. The organizer, Peter Nathan of PWN Exhibicion LLC, in Westport, Conn., said a San Diego company is among those scheduled to attend.
He would not name the company, or those from Irvine or Costa Mesa, until sometime closer to the event to defuse any possible political criticism.
A Del Mar resident who is president of a trade association that promotes interactions with Cuba says the time is ripe for overtures to Cuba.
"It's a logical market for San Diego," said William J. Hauf, president of the U.S. Association for International Business & Trade. "San Diego is familiar with dealing with international business and the carry-over into biotechnology fits well.
"It would make a lot of sense to be visiting and establishing relationships. " He said Cubans value personal relationship and familiarity in their business equations.
San Diego's distance from Cuba might even benefit the region's prospects in Cuba, said Richard Feinberg, a former National Security Council adviser to President Clinton on Latin affairs and now a professor at UCSD.
Even though Miami is an important gateway for Latin business and is close to Cuba, Cuban politics is a bitterly divisive issue there. "Here," Feinberg said, "politically, these openings would be a nonevent."
CUBAN HEALTH OFFICIALS TAKE ACTION AGAINST AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITO
Havana, October 29(RHC)-- Cuban health officials announced on Thursday that six measures are being promoted nationally to insure that dengue fever is a thing of the past. After dengue fever was deliberated introduced into the country by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in l981, a national program was set up to eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which is a carrier of the disease.
Currently, the insect has not reappeared in 139 of the country's 169 municipalities and, according to Cuban health authorities, today's low indices of infestation make it highly unlikely that an epidemic of dengue could break out. Experts also say that the rapid containment of a dengue epidemic in Santiago de Cuba in 1997 represents a success for Cuba's disease control program.
The passing of Hurricane Irene over Cuba this month prompted new measures against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. A campaign is being mounted, promoting six actions for people to take against the mosquito, including keeping water tanks covered, making holes in cans before they are discarded and storing empty bottles upside down.
The first official day for the eradication of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito
has been set for Saturday, November 6th.
U.S. GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN VISITS LATIN AMERICAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Havana, October 26(RHC)-- Illinois Governor George Ryan continued his
visit to Cuba today, with further criticism of his nation's economic blockade
against the island.
Accompanied by a large delegation of elected officials and health and
industry sector experts, the governor -- who is the first U.S. governor
to visit Cuba since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 -- spoke with
reporters during a visit to the Latin American School of Medicine. He reiterated
his opposition to the blockade and added that he hoped there would be many
more delegations such as his to the island.
The U.S. governor said that his visit was one of friendship and goodwill.
He was visibly impressed with the school,which offers mostly Central American
students free medical training in an effort to improve health care in their
countries.
During his visit to the school, Governor Ryan was accompanied by Doctor
Carl Getto from the University of Illinois, who said his experience in
Cuba had been "incredible" and that the school constituted "a wonderful
credit for Cuba."
The delegation was accompanied on its visit to the Latin American School
of Medicine by Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres, who explained the system
of primary and preventive health care on the island.
NICARAGUAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HONORS WORK OF CUBAN HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Managua, October 26(RHC)-- The Nicaraguan National Assembly has issued
a resolution honoring the work of 85 doctors and 22 health professionals
who are offering their services to the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan parliament issued a plaque and diploma of recognition
at the request of a group of lawmakers from the Cuba-Nicaragua Friendship
Committee, composed of legislators from nearly all of the country's political
parties.
Cuban doctors continue to treat victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central
America and the Caribbean, offering their services free-of-charge.
Cuba's integral health program for Central America is aimed at saving lives -- reducing infant mortality and preventing deaths from curable diseases.
HAVANA, October 24, 1999
HAVANA.- Some 20 letters of intent and sanitary cooperation projects were signed by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health and a dozen European and Latin American nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) The documents, which cover donations worth US$ 17.5 million, were signed during the II Multi-sector Conference of the Mobilization of Resources for Public Health and Sustainable Development. The NGO's include Medicuba Europe. DPTO.INFORMACION/MINREX"
HAVANA, OCTOBER 23TH OF 1999
HAVANA.- Merits achieved by Cuba in Health are based in the will to turn good ideas into reality, said Fidel Castro yesterday. In the closing of the VII International Conference of Health Basic Assistance (HBA), the statesman said that the health achievements made by the country were and are encouraged by urgent needs. "One valuable thing is to have demonstrated that with little we can do much", said Fidel Castro to more than one thousand delegates attending the meeting.
HAVANA.- U.S. deny Cuban access to medicines and food in spite of
the measures they wield to pretend a loosening of the blockade against
Cuba, reiterated Ricardo Alarcon. Cuban Parliament President said that
Cuba is the only country to which a foreign power has decided to annihilate
as a nation. He noted that this was established with the Helms-Burton act,
compared to which, Platt amendment, that aborted Cuban independence, pales.
CUBAN MEDICAL BRIGADE ON ITS WAY TO KOSOVO
Havana, October 22(RHC)-- A Cuban medical brigade is on its way to Yugoslavia to offer its services free-of-charge to victims of the U.S.-led NATO invasion.
Sources from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in Havana that the medical aid was organized in coordination with United Nations agencies working in Yugoslavia and reiterated Cuba's willingness to send 1000 doctors to the war-torn regions of Kosovo.
HAVANA: SITE OF NUMEROUS INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS ON HEALTH
Havana, October 22(RHC)-- This has been a very busy and productive week for the Cuban capital in the field of health. During a series of meetings held this week in Havana, top Ibero-American health officials and professionals have had the opportunity to exchange experiences and discuss new strategies for the future.
One of the most important meetings held here in Havana this past week was the First Ibero-American Meeting of Health Ministers. There was also a special activity to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban Health Ministry -- the first governmental-level health ministry created in the world. Havana was also the site of an international conference to mark the 75th anniversary of the Pan-American Health Code; the Second International Conference on Health and Sustainable Development, which wound up on Thursday; and the 7th International Seminar on Primary Health Care which winds up Friday night.
During the week, 21 projects and letters of intent worth 17.5 million dollars were signed in the field of health between the Cuban Health Ministry and 12 non-governmental organizations from Europe and Latin America.
HAVANA.- Approximately 20 Public Health Ministers and other Ibero American institutions' health officials are attending the first Health Ministers meeting in this region. Francisco Ventura, Portuguese Health Secretary, favored exchange among countries and highlighted that Cuba has many achievements to share. Gilberto Rodriguez, Venezuelan Minister said the purpose of the meetings on Monday and Tuesday is plan for the future for Ibero American countries.
CUBA AND HONDURAS SIGN BILATERAL ACCORD REGARDING CUBAN DOCTORS IN THAT CENTRAL AMERICAN NATION
Tegucigalpa, October 21(RHC)-- Cuba and Honduras have signed a bilateral accord regarding Cuban doctors in that Central American nation. The accord was signed Wednesday in Tegucigalpa by Honduran Foreign Minister Roberto Flores and Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Bolanos.
During his speech following the signing ceremony, the Honduran foreign minister stated that during the 11 months that Cuban health specialists provided assistance in his country in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, there were times when they placed their own health and lives in danger. He said their personal sacrifice -- which he called "a moral duty" -- has won the Cuban health professionals "a special place in the hearts of all Hondurans."
The bilateral agreement stipulates free-of-charge service for at least another year in the most-remote regions of Honduras. It also provides for post-graduate training of Honduran doctors by Cuban specialists in fields like urology, cardiology and epidemiology.
Although Cuba has offered its medical services free-of-charge, the Honduran government has unilaterally decided to provide the health specialists with room and board and a 100 dollar-a-month stipend. Flores also stated that the opposition of the Honduran Medical College to Cuban medical presence in the country will no longer be a problem, since the bilateral accord has been signed based on national interests.
As a result of that opposition, last September 30th more than 100 Cuban doctors returned home, but they were replaced by another 32 at the request of the Honduran government. In the coming days, another 121 doctors are expected to arrive in Honduras.
In his speech following the signing ceremony, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Bolanos pointed out that this is the first bilateral accord the two nations have signed in 50 years, following the reestablishment of diplomatic relations last year and the opening in the Honduran capital of a Cuban interests section.
While in Honduras, Cuban doctors provided assistance to 450,000 Hondurans. There are currently nearly 1200 Cuban health specialists in Central America, but Bolanos stated that Cuba is ready to send as many as 2000.
The Cuban deputy foreign minister also stated that Cuba is willing to
send as many as 1000 doctors to Kosovo. At the request of the United Nations,
11 Cuban health specialists traveled to Kosovo last Sunday, the 17th.
MEDI-CUBA EUROPE SIGNS LETTER OF INTENT WITH CUBA'S HEALTH MINISTRY
Havana, October 21(RHC)-- Medi-Cuba Europe, a non-governmental organization created in 1997, has signed a letter of intent with the Cuban Health Ministry to contribute to the development of Cuba's pharmaceutical industry.
The document foresees a half million dollars of aid for the year 2000, which will be devoted to the development of a plant to produce a key drug to treat cancer and the purchase of 24 types of raw materials to produce other medicines.
Laura Gonzalez, President of Medi-Cuba Europe, told Radio Havana Cuba
that the project has a different concept of aid. She said it is a long-term
project that is aimed primarily at breaking the U.S. blockade against Cuba.
It is also hoped that the aid will make it possible for Cuba to produce
85 percent of the medicine needed on the island.
CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO SAYS MEDICAL COOPERATION TO THIRD WORLD COULD QUADRUPLE
Havana, October 20(RHC)-- Cuban medical cooperation to Third World countries could quadruple, stated Cuban President Fidel Castro during the First Ibero-American Health Ministers Meeting which wound up Tuesday night in the Cuban capital.
At the end of the meeting, the Cuban official reiterated the island's willingness to expand its health cooperation, which already includes over 1300 health workers offering their services free-of-charge in Central America and the Caribbean.
During an exchange with Ibero-American health ministers and representatives, the Cuban leader said that for every three doctors on the island, one could be sent abroad to treat patients in other countries. Even with one-third of its doctors serving in other parts of the world, Cuba would still lead the list of countries with more doctors per inhabitant.
Referring to Havana's Latin American School of Medicine, which will be officially inaugurated during the 9th Ibero-American Summit in November, the leader of the Cuban Revolution said that in the next three years, as many as 7000 students from the region will be studying at the school.
Created to help train health professionals from countries affected by Hurricane Mitch, scholarships to Havana's School of Medicine have been extended to students of other Latin American countries as well.
6th LATIN AMERICAN CONGRESS ON NEURO-PSYCHOLOGY UNDERWAY IN VARADERO
Varadero, October 20(RHC)-- The 6th Latin American Congress on Neuro-Psychology is underway in Varadero with the participation of 70 delegates from 26 countries.
Outstanding research experts are meeting at the Plaza America Convention Center to analyze recent scientific and technical advances in the study of mental health.
Cuban professionals attending the Congress will debate issues and present
scientific works aimed at contributing to the exchange of experiences among
the participants.
CUBAN PRESIDENT ATTENDS IBERO-AMERICAN HEALTH MINISTER'S MEETING
Havana, October 19(RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro participated in the Ibero-American Health Minister's Meeting that got underway on Monday in the Cuban capital.
During the two-day meeting, delegates discussed the effects of globalization in the health sector, cooperation among Ibero-American nations and strategies to guarantee health for all in the third millenium.
Tuesday evening, the Ibero-American health ministers and representatives approved a final declaration, which will be submitted to the 9th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, slated for next month in Havana.
LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDENT ORGANIZATION SLATED TO MEET IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL
Havana, October 19(RHC)-- The 12th Congress of the Latin American and Caribbean Continental Organization of Students--OCLAE-- will take place in Havana in April next year.
According to the organization's president, Yosvany Diaz, the main goal of the event is to strengthen the unity of the Latin American students' movement and to design a common strategy to fight neo- liberalism.
Some 5000 students from the region, including 1000 Cubans and 300 young people from the Latin American School of Medicine, are expected to attend the meeting. They will exchange experiences and debate issues such as neo-liberalism and its negative effects on education, the role of students in Latin America and the regional integration process.
The event will also be attended by representatives of regional, national
and international institutions, as well as by non-governmental organizations
and other groups.
FIRST MEETING OF IBERO-AMERICAN HEALTH MINISTERS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA
Havana, October 18(RHC)-- The First Meeting of Ibero-American Health Ministers was officially opened Monday morning by Cuba's Health Minister Carlos Dotres. The gathering is taking place behind closed doors at Havana's Convention Center and is one of many ministerial meetings scheduled prior to the 9th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, slated for November 15th and 16th here in the Cuban capital.
Health ministers and deputy ministers from 17 countries and representatives of 13 international organizations are attending meeting. Monday's agenda included debates on three important themes: the effects of globalization on reforms of the health sector; cooperation in the health sector within the Ibero-American context; and primary health care as a priority to improve health care in the new millenium.
INFANT MORTALITY RATE IN HAVANA REDUCED TO 7.7 PER ONE THOUSAND LIVE BIRTHS
Havana, October 18(RHC)-- The infant mortality rate in Havana is currently 7.7 for every 1000 live births, making it the lowest in the country's history, according to the Director of Havana's Public Health, Dr. Lorenzo Somarriba.
Emphasizing the priority of Cuba's mother-child program, Dr. Somarriba referred to the upcoming inauguration of maternal homes in the Cuban capital and on the refurbishing of the maternity ward at the Enrique Cabrera Hospital.
He also mentioned local action plans to clean up the capital, which began long before Hurricane Irene last week, and pointed to health measures to prevent disease and epidemics in the wake of the hurricane.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIANS VISIT CUBA
Havana, October 18(RHC)-- A group of European parliamentarians, currently visiting Havana, toured health centers that have received humanitarian aid from the European Union.
During a visit to the Centro-Habana Pediatric Hospital, the Vice President of the European Parliament's Development and Cooperation Commission, Fernando Fernandez, stated that it is necessary for European Union-member countries and Cuba to increase cooperation.
Cuba is the only Latin American country that does not enjoy a specific cooperation accord with the European Union and the aid that the island receives from the EU is characterized as humanitarian, mainly in the health sector.
QUITO.- Six Cuban presidents of Municipal People's Power Assemblies
(mayors), are in Ecuador for a technical cooperation project between both
countries on health and the environment. The project is part of
the Letter of Yaguajay, signed in Yaguajay,central Cuba in June, when six
Ecuadorian mayors visited Cuba. The program, sponsored by the Pan American
Health Organization, World Health Organization and the government of the
municipality of Yaguajay, promotes Latin American and Caribbean integration.
GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS ANNOUNCES VISIT TO CUBA Chicago, October 13(RHC)-- The Governor of the U.S. State of Illinois, Republican George Ryan, has confirmed he will visit Cuba beginning October 23rd.
Governor Ryan announced that his delegation will include local government officials, legislators and journalists. The governor of Illinois also stated that his accompanying delegation will donate nearly two million dollars in food, medicine and school supplies to the Cuban people.
According to Governor George Ryan, an advance group from Illinois visited Cuba several weeks ago and was able to get a first-hand look at the situation on the island. He told reporters that issues affecting the Cuban people are also important for the people of his Midwestern state of Illinois.
George Ryan, who became the governor of Illinois last February, could
become the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba since Washington imposed its
economic blockade against the island almost 40 years ago.
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION.
October 1999. La Havana. Cuba
BY NICANOR LEON COTAYO
A very significant problem in the United States today is that tens of millions of people lack guaranteed access to medical care, which is getting worse because there are many children among the uninsured.
One of the two Democratic presidential candidates in the 2000 presidential elections, Albert Gore, said on September 7 that if he were to win, he would solve the tragedy of those children within five years.
In a Los Angeles hospital, Vice President Gore said that if elected president, he would make sure that by 2005 every child in the United States had completely accessible medical coverage.
AFP news agency reports that in the United States around 43 million U.S. citizens lack medical insurance, including 11 million children, and Gore is promising that, as president, one of his fundamental programs would be to change that situation for children.
An indication of what it's like to be a child without medical insurance in the United States was offered by the magazine U.S. News & World Report in an article published April 28, 1997, under the title, "Kids at Risk."
According to the article, due to a lack of guaranteed medical care, parents place limitations on their children, prohibiting them from visiting their friends' houses and climbing trees, as well as forbidding them to play in the rain or snow, playing football, rollerblading, or riding bikes.
Bill Clinton promised during his '92 campaign that he would guarantee medical access to all U.S. citizens, but subsequently the idea was filibustered in Congress by large pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
Last July 15, a project aimed at reforming the health care system was held up in Congress. It dealt with the rights of almost 160 million people whose care depends on private entities.
These powerful corporations refuse to pay, among other things, extended specialized medical care, prolonged hospital stays and even very expensive medicines.
According to the press, there are 600,000 doctors in the United States, half of whom are employed by the large private insurance companies which hire 80% of graduates, while only six percent are affiliated with a union.
Health care reform is a hot issue in Congress and sure to be a determining factor in the debates preceding the upcoming presidential election. Thus it deserves some commentary.
With more than 200 years of nationhood, the most powerful capitalist power in the world has not been able to solve a question as important as guaranteeing medical coverage to all of its citizens.
The significance of the problem can be measured when Vice President Gore promises that, if he wins the elections, in 2005 medical services will be offered to all U.S. children, something that, for example, Cuba achieved decades ago, despite the enduring U.S. blockade.
During the current administration, many Democrats and Republicans in Congress stymied Clinton's proposal of broadening government medical insurance in the United States. Why? Because, as the press widely reported. those whose interests were threatened by the pending legislation lobbied in Washington with copious amounts of money.
These same interests are again sabotaging the attempt to reform the country's health care system, which has become a thriving market of multimillion-dollar businesses whose executives are certainly heavy contributors to political campaigns.
To put the situation in perspective, the 11 million children in the United States lacking health coverage represent Cuba's entire population.
Meanwhile, on September 7, the television CBS and Viacom networks announced a merger valuing $80 billion USD, capable of creating, according to EFE, the world's largest mass media conglomerate.
How do you reconcile this with the fact that powerful politicians in Washington are telling millions of children to wait until 2005 to have the right to fall ill, while billion-dollar mergers continue to open the floodgates, allowing the sweet image of the U.S. lifestyle to spill out over the world?
The main drama in the United States lies in the fact that there is no adequate or practical answer for its deepest internal problems, or for the immense suffering majority of humanity."
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION. La Havana. Cuba
October 11, 1999
DOCTOR RETURNS FROM WORK IN HONDURAS
Example for the world in the field of medicine
* Welcomed by Fidel
* Some 1600 Cuban doctors offering services in 60 nations throughout
world
* New collaboration program with Sub-Saharan Africa announced
* Cuba to support the creation of medical schools in those countries
On the tarmac of Havana's José Martí International Airport,President Fidel Castro welcomed the medical brigade that worked in Honduras and described their work there as one of the greatest examples for the world in the field of medicine.
Happy and very pleased, Fidel emphasized how this group of health care professionals and technicians were the first to arrive in Honduras, the poorest country in Central America and the most devastated by Hurricane Mitch, leaving the largest number of victims and of families who lost everything.
He emphasized the human sensitivity and nobility of these doctors, nurses and technicians, whose only, albeit great, award was the expressions of affection and gratitude from the hundreds of thousands of Hondurans they treated, which confirmed that such efforts are worth more than all the gold in the world.
He explained that the group's return to Cuba was pushed forward by the appearance of unjustified jealousies, and false and imaginary conflicts of interest in Honduras, which allowed a group of influential people from the Honduran Medical Association to establish the deadline of September 30 on the brigade's stay in the country.
Fidel clarified that the Cuban doctors were not in the capital or in the large cities, and their project was directed at inaccessible zones, which is a distinguishing characteristic of the Cuba's collaboration program in Central America and the Caribbean, and which is very well-received in all the countries where our nation offers its services.
He pointed out that many Honduran doctors and authorities in the country are thankful for the Cuban brigade's work, and added that the Caribbean island is prepared to analyze the renewal of collaboration in the health field.
An example of this attitude is the dispatch of a new emergency medical brigade requested to help with health problems caused by the strong floods in that nation during recent days. The brigade was sent with the greatest of urgency, and will remain there for as long as the local government considers appropriate.
PROGRAM FOR AFRICA
One by one, Fidel greeted all the members of the group that returned and said that currently there are more than 1600 Cuban doctors offering services in almost 60 nations. He announced that the socialist island in the Caribbean will establish a medical assistance program in Sub-Saharan Africa.
He indicated that the new program is part of Cuban medicine's spirit of solidarity and internationalism, and will be different in certain respects from those in Central America, because in Africa Cuba will promote the creation of medical schools, whose professors will be the Cuban doctors working in those countries.
He also spoke about the integral program of the training of health professionals in Cuba, which already has 2000 students from Latin America and the Caribbean. He predicted that by the first half of next year this number will be 3000.
He clarified that in addition to the Latin American Medical School, Cuba's other 20 medical schools will be included in the program, which in scarcely three years will be educating 6000 medical students.
In the late hours of the night, Fidel received the brigade in the headquarters of the Council of State and awarded diplomas of recognition for their dedication, perseverance, and unwavering resolution, to the members of this detachment who worked in Honduras for 11 months.
OCTOBER 09, 1999
HAVANA.- Nicaraguan newspaper El nuevo Diario considered the Latin
American School of Medicine, in Havana, as a tropical paradise of science
and medicine. The center comprises over 2000 students from 19 countries.
In a feature article, journalist Francisco Lopez - the paper's special
envoy - commented on the school's magnificent conditions and the high scientific
and human level of its teachers. There are 328 Nicaraguans from the poorest
families and the most distant places of this nation.
HAVANA (Reuters) - 9 Oct 1999
The Anglo-U.S. health care group SmithKline Beecham, which has a deal
to test and market a Cuban meningitis vaccine, plans to sell the drug in
Europe first but eventually take it to the United States, a director said.
``This is an agreement for global marketing rights,'' Baroness Gloria Hooper, a member of SmithKline Beecham's board of directors, told Reuters in an interview Friday night.
Hooper, a British Conservative Party politician, was part of a team of SmithKline Beecham executives here this week to discuss the pioneering accord agreed in July to market a vaccine against Group B meningococcal meningitis developed by Finlay Institute, a state medical research and production centers.
The group had dinner Thursday night with President Fidel Castro.
Under the terms of the deal, the London-based drug company will first conduct trials at its Belgian vaccine-testing laboratories.
Once the trials are complete, SmithKline Beecham will seek licensing for the vaccine in Europe with a view to starting sales within a few years, with Britain the first market, said Hooper.
The Anglo-U.S. group would apply its expertise in areas like refining, packaging and marketing the Cuban drug, which has already been used in Cuba and sold in Latin America.
Asked if the company also planned to sell the Cuban vaccine in the United States, she said: ``Eventually, yes.''
The agreement represented more than just a commercial breakthrough for Cuba's fledgling biotechnology industry, which has been struggling to sell its products in the developed world's regulated markets.
In a tactical shift in U.S. policy, the U.S. government is allowing the Cuban vaccine to be tested at the laboratories of SmithKline Beecham Biologicals.
Although the laboratories are in Rixensart, Belgium, the license was required because the Belgian vaccine center is owned by a U.S. subsidiary of the parent group. Washington's long-running economic embargo against Cuba prohibits trade transactions with the island by U.S. firms or citizens.
Hooper said she understood the U.S. government license was granted for ``humanitarian reasons''.
Asked if she feared a political backlash from right-wing Cuban exiles in the United States, she replied: ``We just want to get on with the business of producing good vaccines''.
The deal with the Finlay Institute involved what Hooper called ``a barter arrangement,'' in which SmithKline Beecham would initially pay the Cubans with food and medicines as the vaccine is registered in new markets. Cash royalties would start once sales began.
Hooper was accompanied on her visit to Cuba by Jean Stephenne, the president of SmithKline Beecham Biologicals in Belgium, and also by a scientist and a company legal expert.
Although recognized by many international experts as highly advanced by Third World standards, the Cuban biotechnology industry has found it difficult to get its products marketed in Europe and North America because of complex regulatory barriers.
Havana, October 8(RHC)-- Lower infant mortality rates due to the successful struggle against infectious diseases and the development of medicine to prevent childhood illnesses are the main achievements of the island's health care system, according to Cuban pediatrician, Dr. Juan Carlos Velazquez.
These were among the issues discussed during the International Congress on Infectious Childhood Diseases, currently being held at Havana's International Convention Center.
Dr. Juan Carlos Velazquez stressed that the production of vaccines, the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases and the island's mother-child program have achieved the reduction of Cuba's infant mortality rate to 7.1 for every one thousand live births.
Havana, October 6(RHC)-- Guatemalan Agriculture Minister Mariano Ventura -- who just wrapped up a visit to Cuba -- said he will study the island's advanced technologies which can be used in his country.
The Guatemalan official reported that BIORAT, the Cuban-made biological rat poison currently being used in agricultural areas in northern Guatemala, has had positive results. Mariano Ventura said he will analyze a number of other Cuban-manufactured products that could be beneficial for the Central American country.
Guatemala's agriculture minister was a member of the delegation led by President Alvaro Arzu, which just finished its visit to Cuba.
CUBA'S BIO-PHARMACEUTICAL LABORATORIES RECEIVE AWARD IN PERU
Lima, October 5(RHC)-- Cuba's Bio-Pharmaceutical Laboratories, LABIOFAM, has received an award for the development of a vaccine against a disease that attacks the immunization system of poultry. The award was presented by the Latin American Poultry Association in Lima, Peru.
In statements to reporters, the director of the institution, Jose Antonio Fraga Castro, said that the vaccine -- the first of its type in Latin America -- is the result of hard work by Cuban researchers and the Pedro Kouri Institute.
Present during the award ceremony was Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori
who expressed his satisfaction for the achievements of Cuba's Bio-Pharmaceutical
Laboratories.
(c) Copyright GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION. La Havana. Cuba
October 1999
Desertification, a dangerous legacy for the 21st century
A problem affecting 30% of the planet, from which Cuba is not exempt,
was examined during the 5th International Congress on Disasters
BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS
The Cauto basin, the largest in the country, was affected last year by an intense drought. THE marvelous tropical climate of the Cuban archipelago, where everything is green, does not exempt the country from the danger of desertification which affects 30% of the planet and which is visible in regions of some Cuban provinces. Here the problem is not as bad as in other countries, but requires, along with the official support being offered by UN agencies, a broad knowledge on the part of the population to improve the impact of the projects aimed at impeding soil degradation.
This theme was the focus of analysis during the 5th International Congress on Disasters, which took place in Havana, at which desertification and droughts and their consequences were discussed by experts in different fields.
Worldwide desertification affects one billion people in 100 countries, from Africa, to the open plains and pampas of the Americas, the steppes of Asia, the Australian desert and the banks of the Mediterranean Sea. Although that doesn't mean that in all those countries there are gigantic deserts, the following examples should be borne in mind: arid and semi-arid zones cover 75% of Argentina's territory, while in Burkina Faso around 22% of the land is arid, 70% is semi-arid and 8% is considered dry. Desertification is especially acute in Africa, where the land is predominantly desert or dry, and 73% of its arable land is already seriously or moderately degraded.
According to the UN, each year the planet loses 24 billion tons of topsoil, which costs the world $40 billion USD in crop losses.
One of the concerns of Cuban experts is the need to extend the knowledge of the problem to all parts of society, to work together to reduce the drought-related losses. In Cuba there are prolonged droughts and also arid regions, suffering from salinization and solidification. Because of this measures are being adopted to improve water supply and also to conserve this resource.
Drought is the main problem, but along with it there are the problems of the rising sea level and the marine intrusion in coastal basins, which under insular conditions can be particularly grave, warned expert Osvaldo Barros Mouriño of Cuba's Institute of Hydraulic Resources.
In the last 40 years, a large infrastructure has been created that currently includes 221 dams with reservoirs, storing nearly nine billion cubic meters of water. At the same time, a reforestation program is being developed in the country, which includes the planting a large quantity of timber-bearing species. Currently, 20% of the island's surface is covered with forests, compared to 14% in 1959. In mountain regions 400 million different varieties have been planted, but this doesn't solve the entire problem due to the lack of resources and the limitations aggravated by economic difficulties and the U.S. blockade, which has come under increasing opposition internationally and within that country.
Prestigious institutions have expressed it publicly, and representatives of Inter-American Dialogue, a group with headquarters in Washington, stated that the economic embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba has negative repercussions on the protection of endangered species that live on the island, and many species of animals that run the risk of extinction in the United States have established their permanent residence here. To this is added habitat alteration through deforestation and erosion in devastated regions due to prolonged droughts, which could be rectified if the country could received the necessary help. However, the official policy of the U.S. administration and the laws approved by the U.S. Congress block U.S. financial agencies from providing funds for establishing cooperative agreements in the sphere of environmental matters, a policy that extends to the World Bank and other international institutions.
This, along with desertification, droughts and other disasters, are
the legacy which will be inherited by the new millenium.
Editorial office: redac@granmai.get.cma.net
Business officeL: gi@granmai.get.cma.net"
INTERNATIONAL GERONTOLOGY CONGRESS WRAPS UP IN HAVANA
Havana, October 1(RHC)-- Today, October 1st, is the International Day of The Elderly and a number of activities were scheduled for Geronto-Vida 99. The international event on gerontology and geriatrics winds up tonight at Havana's International Convention Center.
The social integration of the elderly and the importance of improving The lives of older adults were among the issues on the agenda for Participants at Geronto-Vita 99.
The international event included the Third Congress of the Latin American Committee of the International Association of Gerontology and the Fourth National Congress on Gerontology and Geriatrics.
Scheduled for Friday night are a series of lectures and panel discussions on the issue of an aging world population. Pedro Ross Leal, the head of the Confederation of Cuban Workers, will lead a panel on the role of the unions in providing care for the elderly. And Cuban health authorities will discuss care for the elderly within the island's health care system.
HAVANA.- The aging of populations, preventive medicine and other themes related to the elderly were discussed at the second day of the Gerontovida'99 Convention, which has gathered almost 1,000 experts from 20 countries. Delegates from Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, the U.S., Spain, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Cuba discussed different points related to the experiences of their respective countries in treating these people.
HAVANA.- Cuba will preside over the International Gerontology Association's Latin American Committee for the next four years, in acknowledgement of the work done by Cuba since 1984. At the Gerontovida '99 International Convention here, Professor Osvaldo Prieto, President of the Organizing Committee, explained that from 1989 when Cuba entered the International Gerontology Society, its work has been acknowledged by several countries."
CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO WELCOMES HOME DOCTORS WHO SERVED IN HONDURAS
Havana, September 30(RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro welcomed home a group of 108 Cuban health professionals who offered their services in Honduras. The health professionals arrived from Honduras Thursday afternoon and the Cuban president personally thanked each one of them for a job well-done.
The Cuban leader explained that the island's medical mission in Honduras was intended to last for two years. But the return of the health professionals was moved up due to "unjustified, professional jealousy" and conflicts of interest raised by the Honduran Medical Association.
Fidel Castro stated that the Cuban health programs were not intended for the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, nor any other major cities of the Central American nation. He said that the island's health programs were designed for remote regions of Honduras where, in many cases, there had never been a doctor before. The Cuban leader said the doctors did not go to Honduras to compete with anyone, but were part of a humanitarian mission to assist a people in need.
Cuban President Fidel Castro emphasized that it was the Honduran Medical Association that placed a limit on the length of the Cuban doctors' stay in Honduras.
In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in Central America late last year, Cuba offered 2000 health professionals to work in remote areas of the region, free-of-charge and for as long as necessary.
The Cuban president said that the greatest reward that the Cuban doctors can receive regarding their work in Honduras is the gratitude and appreciation of the Honduran people, who did not want them to leave.
Also on hand at the airport today to greet the returning medical professionals were other high-ranking Cuban government officials, along with all the students of Havana's Latin American School of Medicine.
During their 10-month stay in Honduras, the Cuban doctors visited 1300 villages and communities in the country's most remote areas and treated more than 800,000 Hondurans. The doctors performed more than 10,000 surgeries, more than half of which were major operations.
The Cuban health professionals also taught thousands of training courses and encountered three outbreaks of cholera in the Mosquitia region which were successfully controlled thanks to the quick and efficient work of the entire medical brigade.
Another Cuban medical brigade made up of 32 health specialists arrived in Honduras Thursday at the request of that country's government to cover the emergency needs caused by intense rains. The new medical brigade will stay in Honduras as long as the current emergency situation prevails.
The governments of Cuba and Honduras have both expressed their willingness to sign bilateral agreements soon, establishing cooperation in the field of health.
INFANT MORTALITY ON THE RISE IN LATIN AMERICA, WITH EXCEPTION OF CUBA
San Juan, September 29(RHC)-- As many as 500,000 children -- that's a half-million children under the age of five -- die each year in Latin America, many from curable diseases. According to a report issued by a special center for children's diseases, affiliated with the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), at least one out of every three deaths is caused by transmittable diseases or attributed to malnutrition.
The report, made public in Puerto Rico during a meeting of regional health ministers, reveals the staggering statistics: 150,000 Latin American children under the age of five die each year from diarrhea, malaria and respiratory infections -- all preventable with appropriate vaccinations. The PAHO report shows that seven out of 10 of those deaths are attributed to uncomplicated sicknesses such as measles, pneumonia and malnutrition. It goes on to demonstrate that the lack of proper medical care is the primary cause of infant mortality.
The Pan-American Health Organization report points out that the lack of education in basic health care also contributes to childhood illnesses. Many parents simply do not have the appropriate knowledge of how to prevent their children from contracting serious diseases. And poverty is the obvious culprit in making sure that health care facilities are out of the reach of most children in Latin America.
Throughout the region -- with the notable exception of Cuba -- good health is considered a privilege... for those who have the money to pay for it. In Cuba, health care is provided free-of-charge and is considered a human right -- provided to all -- with a particular emphasis on the young... the future of any society.
CUBA CHAIRS LATIN AMERICAN COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL GERIATRICS ASSOCIATION
Havana, September 29(RHC)-- Cuba will chair the Latin American Committee of the International Geriatrics Association for the next four years, in recognition of the island's work with the elderly.
The announcement was made during the inauguration of the Geriatrics '99 International Convention, which got underway Tuesday in the Cuban capital with the participation of some one thousand delegates from 20 countries.
In statements to reporters, professor Osvaldo Prieto, the president of the event's organizing committee and director of the Ibero-American Center for the Elderly, pointed out that since 1989, the work carried out by the Cuban Geriatrics Association has been recognized by various countries.
He added that Cuba is only one of three countries of the region that
has increased its life expectancy by 20 years and is only surpassed by
Canada and the United States.
75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE PAN-AMERICAN HEALTH CODE TO BE CELEBRATED IN HAVANA
San Juan, September 28(RHC)-- The General Director of the Pan American Health Organization, George Alleyne, called on all of the region's healthministers to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Pan-American Health Code in Havana on October 20th.
The call was made during the 41st Meeting of the Executive Council of The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres is attending the meeting.
The current Health Code was signed in 1924 at Havana's Academy of Sciences with the objective of uniting the region's health care systems.
The celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Pan-American Health Code
Will be held in Havana following the Ibero-American Health Minister's Meeting,
slated for October 18th and 19th in the Cuban capital.
SURGERY CONGRESSES MEET IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL
Havana, September 22(RHC)-- The 13th Latin American Congress on Surgery and 6th Cuban Congress on Surgery are underway at Havana's Convention Center.
Over 1000 surgery professors and specialists from 24 nations continued their debates and exchanges during Wednesday's sessions. The agenda includes new minimum access technologies, new approaches in surgery for colon, rectum, hernia and cysts operations and also surgery for small tumors.
Cultural activities for participants have also been scheduled, such as a Latin American Night at Havana's Amphitheater and a concert by the National Symphonic Orchestra at the Cuban capital's Amadeo Roldan Theater.
Delegates participating in this Latin American Surgery Congress underway at the Convention Center also have the opportunity to visit the various stands located in the hall where some of the latest technologies and equipment are in display. They belong to companies such as the Three M and Variant from the United States and Fem Care Limited from England as well as other companies.
The 13th Latin American Congress on Surgery and 6th Cuban Congress on Surgery wind up on Friday, the 24th.
BRITISH UNIONS CONTRIBUTE TO CUBA'S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Havana, September 24(RHC)-- British union activists have donated 17 ambulances, 14 busses and several mini-busses to the Cuban health care system. The contribution --with an estimated value of one million 500 thousand dollars -- is part of a solidarity campaign called "A Ship for Cuba."
The donation, which also includes powered milk, vitamins and clothing, Was sent to Havana by ship. Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres received The donation in the Cuban capital.
At the official ceremony, it was announced that a second ship with Donations
for Cuban hospitals will soon set sail for the island.
U.S. LEGISLATION ALLOWING FOR THE SALE OF FOOD AND MEDICINE TO CUBA KILLED IN COMMITTEE
Washington, September 22(RHC)-- Right wing members of the U.S. House of Representatives have blocked legislative efforts to at least partially lift Washington's blockade against Cuba -- which would have allowed for the sale of food and medicine to the island.
A Senate bill permitting U.S. companies to sell food and medicine to Cuba -- while still keeping the rest of the blockade in place -- was approved earlier this summer by a vote of 70 to 28. However, to become law, the proposal was sent to a conference committee made up of members of the Senate and House of Representatives. It was during negotiations in the conference committee that the legislation was effectively killed.
According to press reports from Capitol Hill, opponents of ending the blockade on food and medicine -- particularly congressional representatives of Cuban origin -- attached a number of conditions to the proposed legislation, including political and economic changes on the island.
One of the sponsors of the bill to allow for the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, New York Representative Jose Serrano, told reporters Wednesday that the conference committee's decision demonstrates the political power that right wing Cuban-Americans in Miami still maintain. Serrano said that it was absurd and inhumane to deny food and medicine to people for political reasons.
Farmers in the United States, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been promoting the partial lifting of Washington's economic blockade, arguing that the geographical proximity of Cuba makes it a logical market for U.S. products.
CUBAN-ALGERIAN JOINT COOPERATION COMMISSION BEGINS THIRD ORDINARY SESSION IN ALGIERS
Algiers, September 22(RHC)-- The Cuban-Algerian Joint Cooperation Commission began its Third Ordinary Session to analyze the state of bilateral relations, particularly in scientific and economic areas.
Cuban Deputy Health Minister Noemi Benitez Mendoza and Algeria's General Secretary of Health, Mohamed Abbes Larbi, chaired the meeting.
The main issues being discussed are in the field of agriculture, fishing, tobacco and sugar, as well as the production of vaccines and the technology used by Cuba for cardiovascular surgery.
IBERO-AMERICAN SERIES OF ONCOLOGY CONGRESSES BEGINS IN HAVANA
Havana, September 21(RHC)-- The opening ceremony of the Ibero-American series of Oncology Congresses in Cuba took place Tuesday morning in Havana. The ceremony was presided over by Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, Vice President of Cuba's Council of State; Dr. Luis Cordova, Cuba's Deputy Health Minister; Dr. Jose Jimenez Medina, president of the event's organizing committee; and Salvadoran Dr. Saul Lara, President of the Latin American Federation of Cancerology Societies.
Over 600 delegates from 30 countries are attending the Ibero-American event, underway at Havana's International Convention Center. During his address to participants of the event, the island's Deputy Health Minister Dr. Luis Cordova focused on the evolution of oncology in Cuba -- from the 1930's to date and highlighted the work done by Dr. Zoilo Marinelo, the founder of Cuba's National Oncology Group.
Dr. Cordova also pointed to the World Health Organization's recognition of Cuba's successful Cancer Control Program in 1993 and 1996 and mentioned as one of the island's achievements, a program for the early detection of breast cancer which has made it possible to detect 40 percent of the cases in the first stages. Within Cuba's Cancer Control Program, the Cuban official also mentioned one devoted to cancer in children and the treatment and care of patients in the final stages of the disease with the help of family doctors.
The island's deputy health minister acknowledged the work done by those who promote and support the island's movement called "For Life" and mentioned the contribution made by tourism workers and private employees who have already donated some six and a half million dollars for the purchase of drugs needed to fight cancer.
A special roundtable discussion on Cuban vaccines against cancer is
scheduled for Wednesday. These vaccines are now being tested on patients
at various hospitals here in Havana.
CUBA AND HONDURAS TO SIGN NEW AGREEMENT FOR MORE DOCTORS
Tegucigalpa, September 21(RHC)-- Cuba and Honduras will sign a new agreement to send some 100 Cuban doctors to the Central American nation, replacing the current medical personnel offering their services in that country.
Honduran Foreign Minister Roberto Bermudez said on Monday that Tegucigalpa is willing to sign an accord with Havana, providing for continued service by Cuban medical brigades in that country.
The new brigade will arrive in Honduras next month and is part of a contingent of 10,000 health workers offered by Cuba to Central American and Caribbean countries affected by Hurricanes Georges and Mitch.
CUBA UNVEILS CANCER VACCINE DURING CONGRESS IN HAVANA
Havana, September 20(RHC)-- Cuba will unveil a vaccine against cancer during the Cancer Congress that got underway on Monday in Havana with the participation of representatives from 30 countries.
The vaccine, which is currently in a testing phase at the Molecular Engineering Institute, could be administered to patients with advanced tumors, such as breast, lung and skin cancers.
Officials from Havana's Biotechnology Center pointed to the development achieved by the island's scientists, adding that Cuba's products have been recognized by over 30 foreign markets that demand vaccines like the anti-Meningitis type B vaccine.
An AIDS vaccine, which is still being tested, will also be presented during the Cancer Congress in Havana.
ECUADOR'S HEALTH MINISTER VISITS CUBA Havana, September 20(RHC)-- Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres welcomed his Ecuadorian counterpart, Edgar Rodas Andrade, who arrived in Havana over the weekend. During his visit to the island, the health minister will review current cooperation projects between Ecuador and Cuba and will take part in the Third International Surgery Congress, underway in the Cuban capital.
Upon his arrival in Havana, the Ecuadorian health minister said he hoped to get a first-hand look at the island's advances in health care and, above all, Cuba's application of information and knowledge for the benefit of humanity.
He pointed out that as part of a cooperation agreement between the two countries, Cuban doctors would be sent to offer their services in the Galapagos Islands and possibly in the Amazon region.
HAVANA HOSTS SEVERAL MINISTERIAL MEETINGS IN PREPARATION FOR THE 9th IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT
Havana, September 20(RHC)-- The Cuban capital will host the meeting of Latin American and Caribbean Transportation and Public Works Ministers, to take place Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday this week, the ministers of science and technology will also meet in Havana.
Both ministerial meetings are being held prior to the 9th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, slated to take place November 15th and 16th in the Cuban capital.
Next October 18th and 19th, Havana will also host the First Ibero-American Health Minister's Meeting, which will analyze the effects of globalization in the sector and evaluate the possibilities of technical cooperation.
CUBAN MEDICAL BRIGADE IN NICARAGUA MAKES AN IMPACT
Managua, September 17(RHC)-- The Cuban medical brigade in Nicaragua has treated more than 149,000 people in just nine months. And the results of its work have been remarkable.
In statements to Cuba's daily Granma, Doctor Reynaldo Perez Rosario, head of the island's medical mission in Nicaragua, said that since the arrival of the Cuban doctors in the Central American nation, the infant mortality rate has been significantly lowered.
He added that infant mortality due to severe diarrhea has decreased by some 42.8 percent and cholera has been reduced by over 70 percent.
CUBA TAKES PART IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AGAINST AIDS AND TROPICAL DISEASES IN AFRICA
Lusaka, September 17(RHC)-- Cuba is participating in the 11th International Conference against AIDS and Tropical Diseases in Africa, currently taking place in Zambia with more than 7600 delegates from 77 countries.
Cuban Deputy Health Minister Raul Perez spoke about the work the island has carried out in AIDS prevention. The Cuban health official also mentioned the island's cooperation in the health sector, which over the past 36 years, has sent 25,700 doctors to different countries around the world -- offering their services free of charge.
HAVANA OFFERS MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TO EAST TIMOR;
Havana, September 17(RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has postponed a planned visit to Portugal, given the situation in Lisbon's former colony of East Timor. In a statement released by the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Perez Roque will pay an official visit to Portugal at a more convenient time.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry noted that an international peacekeeping force in East Timor is, under the exceptional circumstances of the conflict, important and necessary. The statement calls for the peacekeeping force to be under the strict command of the United Nations and without any intentions of hegemony or favoring powerful regional or foreign forces.
As long as the force is under UN command and there are no imperialist designs, Cuba is prepared to take part by sending a team of medical personnel to East Timor to treat victims of the violence. The Foreign Ministry note states that once the international peace-keeping force ends its mission, Cuba is willing to offer civilian medical brigades, for as long as necessary, to continue treating people in East Timor.
SECOND CENTRAL AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN CONGRESS ON
PLASTIC SURGERY GETS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA
Havana, September 16(RHC)-- The Second Central American and Caribbean Congress on Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is underway at Havana's Capitol Building with the participation of specialists from nine regional countries.
During the three-day meeting, nearly 250 delegates attending the event will analyze some 100 papers on the issue and will present reports and lectures related to plastic and reconstructive surgery and burn treatment.
Cuban Deputy Health Minister Julian Garate welcomed the participants while the General Secretary of the Ibero- American Plastic Surgery Federation said that the congress will serve to strengthen ties between the region's nations.
9 Sep 1999
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION.
La Havana.
Cuba
National Cancer Program - Investments and donations still don't cover the needs
Current cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. All are very expensive. Before the special period, $3 million USD were set aside for chemotherapy alone.
The subsequent financial limitations caused an abrupt freeze in the acquisition of those medicines, which at last is recovering through various channels, even though they still don't cover all the needs.
Dr. Osvaldo Castro Miranda, director of Planning and Economy of Cuba's Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), explained that in the past year, a crisis because of breakdowns of equipment which in many cases is obsolete.
The decision was taken to buy seven cobalt therapy machines, at a cost of $250,000 USD a piece, from the Theratronics firm of Canada. The total expenditure of this equipment amounts to $1.75 million USD, financed by MINSAP, as part of the National Cancer Program.
The first three machines to arrive in Cuba were sent to the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology and the hospitals which treat these types of cases in Pinar del Río and Villa Clara, provinces located in the west and center of the country respectively, notes Dr. Castro. The remaining four radiotherapy machines should arrive this year and will be sent to other regions.
MINSAP will spend $2.5 million USD this year on medicines for chemotherapy treatments, because more is needed than just cytotoxic drugs, even though these are the most necessary.
During the last five years, MINSAP has received more than $6.23 million USD in donations for such expenditures, from various labor unions (the most support comes from tips received by workers in the tourism sector), as well as artists, self-employed people, and individuals in various professions and occupations.
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON DISASTERS UNDERWAY IN HAVANA
Havana, September 8(RHC)-- The 5th International Congress on Disasters is into its second day of sessions at Havana's International Convention Center. Organized by Cuba's Civil Defense headquarters, the Congress is being attended by some 200 delegates from 18 countries. The meeting includes the First International Seminar on Risk Management and the First International Exhibition of Technologies and Equipment for Civil Protection. Among the sponsors of this meeting on natural disasters is the Secretariat of the International Organization for the Reduction of Natural Disasters, the Pan American and World Health Organizations, the United Nations Development Program, the International Federation of Red Cross Societies and the European Community's Office for Humanitarian Aid. Issues discussed on Wednesday included the development of hydraulic resources in Cuba and its influence in the reduction of hydro-climatic disasters, the impact of droughts, preparations for and responses to natural disasters, chemical accidents and toxic waste spills. On the other hand, participants at the First International Seminar on Risk Management are dealing with issues ranging from risk assessment in energy and chemical processing operations to the prevention and control of risks in the tourism sector. Attended by some 80 specialists from various countries and representatives of international and regional organizations such as the Latin American Association for Agricultural Insurance, this seminar -- like the 5th Congress on Disasters -- winds up September 10th.
Cuba Upbeat On SmithKline Vaccine Deal
Sep 07, 1999
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's deal with pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham to market the island's unique meningitis B vaccine could protect millions round the world as well as prove a useful business prospect, senior health officials here said. They added that the deal struck in July -- a breakthrough for Cuba's prestigious biotechnology sector -- had helped put a dent in Washington's ``illogical'' economic sanctions imposed on the Caribbean island following its 1959 revolution. ``After 40 years of blockade, for the first time, the government of the United States has authorized the sale of a Cuban product, and it's not rum or Havana cigars!'' Eric Martinez Torres, head of the Health Ministry's Science and Technology department, told Reuters in a weekend interview.
The British pharmaceutical firm announced at the end of July an agreement with the state-run Finlay Institute giving it worldwide rights to sell the vaccine. Because the Belgian laboratories where the vaccine will be tested are owned by an American subsidiary of SmithKline, thus making them subject to the trade sanctions, the deal required and got the blessing of the U.S. Treasury Department.
World Heath Organization figures show some 500,000 people a year suffer from meningitis, a swelling of the outer area of the brain and spinal cord. Roughly 10 percent of victims die. Cuba developed the vaccine in the mid-1980s in response to a meningitis B epidemic sweeping through the Caribbean island. The vaccine, which began to be administered in late 1988, virtually wiped out the disease here, slashing cases by 94 percent and deaths by 95 percent, according to Health Ministry statistics.
Some 216 Cubans died of meningitis B in 1984, for example, compared to just eight last year. ``It was Cuba's main health problem in the 1980s, but it has stopped being a problem now thanks to the vaccine,'' Miguel Angel Galindo, head of Cuba's immunization program, added.
Cuba has administered 8.3 million doses since then, and exported another nearly 40 million to eight Latin American nations (notably Brazil, Argentina and Colombia), and to Syria. It predicts, however, that sales will take off elsewhere once SmithKline tests and registers the vaccine in Europe. Martinez said that process should be fast as the product was good and the need for it, especially in Europe, was high. ``The 21st century is going to start with more hope for humanity because the Cuban patent is the only one which protects against meningitis B, and it can help an incalculable number of human beings, millions,'' added Martinez.
The officials countered some skepticism from foreign experts over the effectiveness of the Cuban vaccine. While it was true there were many different strains of meningitis, the main cause of epidemics was the meningococcus bacteria, they explained. Of three forms of meningococci, there were other vaccines for A and C, but not for the B strain.
``Cuba was the first and, until now, the only country which developed the vaccine against meningococcus B,'' Martinez said.
The discovery was testimony, he added, to Cuba's biotechnology sector, especially a small groupof scientists who worked on the vaccine: ``It was a miracle, but a miracle borne out of work, a lot of work, 24 hours a day.'' Havana views the developed world's tardiness to embrace the Cuban vaccine more as a result of the U.S. sanctions, and the reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to accept a product from outside their domain, than as a reflection on its quality.
``Now with SmithKline, it's a great bilateral opportunity, from the health and economic perspectives,'' Martinez said.
Under the agreement, SmithKline will make milestone payments in food and medicines as the vaccine is registered in new markets, and will pay cash royalties when sales are made.
The political importance is also paramount for Cuba, however, with officials arguing the deal has shown up the absurdity of the U.S. embargo or ``blockade'' as Havana calls it.``At last, the U.S. government has taken an intelligent attitude. This vaccine will help its own people. It is evidence that the blockade is not only immoral, but also useless,'' Martinez said. ``The blockade damages most the Cubans, but it also damages those who are blockading.''
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
September 6, 1999/No. 75
HAVANA.- Members of more than 50 French labor unions, mayors' offices, solidarity associations and companies, are preparing a shipment of donations destined mainly for the health sector, according to the National News Agency. The campaign called "A ship for Cuba", should end in December.Currently, the campaign extends throughout French territory, particularly in he northern municipalities. The action is coordinated by Cuba Cooperation Association in France and the Secretary for Collaboration and Foreign Contributions, together with the Mayor's Office of Havana.
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
Septrember 4, 1999/No. 7
HAVANA.- U.S. Congressmen Tom Lampson, Danny Davis and Sanfod Bishop, covered a wide range of topics during their meeting with Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, President of the Cuban People's Power National Assembly (Parliament), relating to their visit to Cuba and the current relations between both countries. The three legislators also met Cuban deputies of the work sessions which deal with the agriculture,health , foreign affairs and legal matters.
HAVANA.- Cuban Public Health Minister Carlos Dotres pointed out that, in the last 36 years, more than 37,800 public health workers have worked in 83 countries helping people in need of their modest services. At MINSAP headquarters,Dotres received a group of 440 students, from the Latin American Medical School, to whom he gave detailed information on the Cuban health system. The Minister stated precisely, that there are over 1,019 doctors, nurses and technicians working in remote areas in countries in this region and another 206 in sub-Saharan Africa.
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
September 3, 1999/No. 74
HAVANA.- A renewed collaboration in the health sector was begun with a group of Cuban medical specialists who have gone to Iraq, the Arabian country which has suffered permanent aggression and foreign embargoes. The Cuban contingent consists of orthopedists, pediatricians, physiotherapists, anesthesiologists, nurses and lab technicians serving at the Bagdad Emergency Hospital. This Cuban group, as those who work in Central America and other third world countries, will stay in Iraq for a year, but the period could be prolonged.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA.- The Medical Sciences Faculty of the Caribbean was officially opened in Santiago de Cuba, as part of the Cuban program for professional medical training for the region. The ceremony took place at the Heredia theater in Santiago de Cuba, where 117 Haitian young people, who have completed the medical preparatory course, as well as almost 100 faculty members, attended. The school is part of the graduate school of medical sciences of Santiago de Cuba.
Cuban News from Havana
Cuban Interests Section
September 2, 1999/No. 73
CARACAS.-The 100 Venezuelan high school graduates chosen to study medicine in the Latin American School of Medicine, in Cuba, traveled to Havana in a Venezuela's Air Forces plane, it was officially announced. According to the information, the students were selected among a group of 199 lower class young people. The 100 pupils include youngsters from indigenous communities. Amazona is represented eight youngsters, Bolivar, 4, and Zulia, 10. Moreover, the Venezuelan National Indigenous Committee sent 10 students.
HAVANA.- This academic year, more than 28 thousand Cuban and foreign students, including workers, will study in Cuba's 22 medical faculties. Although preliminary, this figure represents between 25 and 30 percent of the students in higher education, registration in pedagogical courses has first place, followed by health specialities, explained Ramon Carreno, a Medical Education technical expert of the Cuban Public Health Ministry.
HAVANA.- Experts from the United Nations and several countries confirmed their attendance to the 5th International Congress on Disasters, to be held in Havana on September 7-10. The list of participants is led by Phillippe Bould, Director of the UN International Decade Program for the Reduction of Natural Disasters, said Cuban National Civil Defense General Saff specialists. Andrew Maskrew, of the UN Program, will also take part in the event, the only one of its type in the world, organized by Cuba since 1987.
HAVANA.- Three international congresses on gerontology and elderly, people will be held simultaneously in Cuba, from September 27 until ,October 1, during the International Year of the Elderly. The 3rd, International Gerontology Association Congress, 4th National, Gerontology and Geriatrics Congress and the 2nd Ibero American Elderly People Associations Congress will shape the Gerontovida '99,Convention, said Organizing Committee President, Dr. Osvaldo Prieto in a press statement.
York Medical initiates Cuban vaccine trial in lung cancer patients
First Patient Enrolled
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Sept. 2, 1999 /CNW-PRN/ - York Medical Inc. is pleased to announce that the first patient has been enrolled in its pivotal clinical trial to evaluate its cancer vaccine in advanced lung cancer patients. The vaccine contains recombinant human epidermal growth factor (EGF) conjugated to a highly immunogenic recombinant bacterial protein, P64k. The vaccine is designed to stimulate the body's immune system to produce anti-EGF antibodies to inhibit the growth of cancer cells over-expressing EGF receptors. The expression of EGF receptor (EGF-r) is important for the growth regulation of most epithelial tumors. It is associated with the continuing growth of cancer cells, metastatic spread and resultant poor prognosis for those patients.
The enrollment of the first patient is an important milestone for York Medical defining the start of this pivotal Canadian trial for our cancer vaccine product. We have encouraging interim results from ongoing studies on the vaccine in Cuba where median survival in responding patients has increased from an expected 4 months to 11 months . In fact this level of survival benefit is unique in patients with cancers of this type, and we would expect to confirm this in our Canadian trial. The survival data would appear to be better than that achieved with current therapies,'' said David G.P. Allan, Chairman and CEO of York Medical.
The pivotal, randomized 80 patient clinical trial, under the direction of Dr. Mark Vincent as principal investigator at the London Regional Cancer Centre, is assessing the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in stage IIIb or IV patients with non-small-cell-lung-cancer who have failed or refused chemotherapy. Secondary objectives are the preliminary assessment of efficacy (survival benefit, objective response) and quality of life.
The vaccine, developed by York Medical's joint venture partner, the Centre of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana, is currently in a number of pilot clinical studies in Cuba. A pilot study has demonstrated the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine, supporting the submission of a Canadian Investigational New Drug (IND) application.
Lung cancer incidence is increasing, especially in women. In total in 1996, there were over 180,000 new cases in the United States and approximately 50% more than that in Europe and Japan. Surgery is currently the primary and most effective treatment for early disease. The addition of radiotherapy and chemotherapy results is only marginally significant prolongation of survival. In patients with advanced non small cell lung cancer, stages IIIb or IV, who are unresponsive to therapy or refuse therapy, the median survival is approximately four months.
In addition to its EGF vaccine, York Medical is developing, also through its joint venture partner CIM, a family of therapeutic and in-vivo diagnostic products based on its monoclonal antibody targeting solid tumours including head, neck, breast and lung. DiaCIM-h-R3, designed to identify tumours over-expressing EGF-r, was the first of these products to be approved by Health Canada to enter clinical trials in Canada.
York Medical Inc. is a Canadian licensing and development company formed for the purpose of commercializing innovative life-sciences products and technologies originating in Cuba.
This announcement may contain, in addition to historical information, certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain assumptions. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results or events and one should avoid placing undue reliance on such statements.
SOURCE York Medical Inc.
CO: York Medical Inc.
ST: Ontario
INFOMED, Linux op system
Copyright GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION. La Havana. Cuba
INFOMED -A project with a vision toward the future
August 31, 1999
This health information network is the first in the world to offer
country-wide coverage and to use the Linux operating system. cubaweb.cu
, the first Cuban website, was conceived and developed at INFOMED, and
the first edition of the digital Granma International was achieved with
its collaboration.
-BY LILLIAM RIERA (Granma International staff writer)
"Learning constitutes the basis for good decision making when problems arise, " Pedro Urra affirms.
IN a room in an old mansion in Vedado, designed by architect Eugenio Rayneri, one of those involved in the construction of Havana's Capitol buiding, the telematic network of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) was developed in 1992, the world's first to offer nationwide coverage and to use Linux as its operating system.
It was an extremely complex moment for the country. The MINSAP information system, like the rest of Cuba's socio-economic infrastructure, was suddenly confronted with serious difficulties. Socialism had fallen in Eastern Europe; the Soviet Union, Cuba's largest trade partner, was no longer in existence; and the U.S. blockade was intensifying.
The necessary cutback of more than $1 million USD for the National Medical Sciences Information Center, earmarked solely for the acquisition of magazines and other scientific publications, was the detonator.
"I believe we were successful because a crisis situation was confronted with a vision of the future," INFOMED director Pedro Urra told Granma International. It was the moment to take advantage of new information and communication technologies from an economic standpoint, in order to connect the most important health and research institutions, as well as those in the provinces, via electronic mail, thus providing access to significant national and international databases and other services like the Web, which were developed later.
"We created a product by mobilizing resources, it couldn't be any other way," Urra noted. In association with the Pan American Health Organization, INFOMED was the recipient of an extra-budgetary project from the United Nations Development Program, worth $300,000 USD. Subsequently the network was extended without dipping into the health budget, financed by consultancy projects and other services offered to certain enterprises.
The agency has also received systematic help from the U.S. non- governmental agency INFOMED USA. According to Urra, the computers brought on one of the Pastors for Peace caravans, "were acquired by them for our project."
The first task was to build a network that linked the biotechnology laboratories of all the country's medical faculties, and this, in turn, would lead the process of building another national health information system, based on the training in this field.
Personnel were trained, and nodes were mounted (points of access to a network) in all the provincial medical faculties, Urra related, in addition to developing a philosophy of "presence points" (which is nothing more than rescuing the public library system, where people lacking the means can go to share resources and access information).
From the beginning, INFOMED used the operating system LINUX - currently causing a crisis at Microsoft - because it was highly adaptable to the particularities of the task and, "because it isn't something packaged," allows for creativity, as well as its work philosophy based on cooperation, states its director.
DEMAND BEYOND ITS POSSIBILITIES
Cuba, unlike the industrialized nations, doesn't possess a high density
of computers and telephone lines per citizen, which has led to the current
demand for this type of information being beyond INFOMED's capacity, taking
into account the huge human potential of the Cuban health system, distributed
throughout the entire country.
Systematic statistics indicate an average of more than 6000 connections daily in City of Havana alone, "a very high figure for any institution offering Internet services," Urra pointed out.
Training has been a constant task within the project, whose emblem is, "Learning constitutes the basis for good decision-making when problems arise." Every week, from September through July, courses are offered to health professionals. In addition, they familiarize children from a school in the vicinity with the facility's new technologies.
On April 23, 2001, Havana is to host the Regional Congress of Health Information Sciences, where INFOMED will present Cuba's Virtual Library (access to information through computer networks) and the Virtual Health University, connected to these technologies with the aim of continuing health professionals' education. "There's no other way to keep more than 65,000 doctors familiar with the cutting edge of medicine," Urra commented.
There they will also launch the Telemedicine Network, "adapted to our conditions, which is able to cover specialized consultations and to send basic X-rays," among other advantages.
In the INFOMED site (www.sld.cu) users can find the complete texts of all of Cuba's medical magazines, all bibliographical health databases, as well as a cultural site.
In the institution's headquarters a temporary gallery has been set up where works of Cuban painters will be systematically displayed (which are also on the Web), because the human and integral concept of health is not limited to sickness - "it's happiness, culture, living together; it's insertion in an appropriate environment."
As a curious piece of information, cubaweb.cu, Cuba's first Internet site, was conceived and implemented by INFOMED, as well as the first Internet edition of Granma International, placed in the network of networks on April 1, 1996, and which was developed in collaboration with the agency.
"All of this lies within our strategy of incubating projects," Urra stressed at the close of our conversation."
English Edition Editorial office: redac@granmai.get.cma.net Business
officeL: gi@granmai.get.cma.net" JC "
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 31, 1999/No. 71
Havana.- Eduardo Bernabe Ordaz, Havana's psychiatric hospital director traveled to Argentina at the head of a medical delegation, at the invitation of their Argentinean counterparts. Ordaz, who is also a deputy in Parliament, said that the delegation was invited to the Argentinean province of Cordoba Psychiatrists' Association to lecture on the development of this important science in Cuba.Alcoholism and drug addition -phenomenons that affect Latin American countries- have been studied by Cuban experts with important results that we will now share with our Argentinean colleagues, said Ordaz.
Havana.- The 7th International Course on Dengue Fever, organized by the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine is continuing with its, lectures, the first of which will be given the Institute's Director. Professor Gustavo Kouri will speak on "Risk Factors in Epidemiology and Dengue Control", to experts from 11 mainly Latin American countries. Kouri's father founded the center in 1937, when the institution was part of the University of Havana's School of Medicine.
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 30, 1999/No. 70
Havana - Bilateral exchange between Cuba and the Ukraine increased by more than 47 million dollars during 1998. The announcement was made by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Cuba, Evguen Esvynarchuk, on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of that independent republic. The Ukraine exports wheat, tires, clothing, electrical equipment, spare parts and other materials to Cuba -- while Havana exports sugar and medicine to the Ukraine.
Havana, - The 7th International Seminar on Dengue continues at the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine. Professor Gustavo Kouri, son of the institute's founder, spoke to delegates from ten countries about epidemiology and the control of dengue and its risk factors. Experts from Cuba's Health Ministry also discussed the island's program for the control and elimination of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the outbreak of an epidemic in eastern Santiago de Cuba in 1997 and the medical attention offered in the eastern provinces. A roundtable on dengue in Latin America was also held with the participation of Cuban and foreign delegates. The international seminar will conclude on Friday, September 3rd.
Matanzas - Cuba's Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Rosa Elena Simeon, praised the scientific work being done to protect the environment and biological diversity in the Zapata Swamp, located in the central province of Matanzas. The Cuban official visited the crocodile nursery as well as areas preserved for the richness of their flora and fauna -- and took time to congratulate workers for their excellent job in promoting environmental conservation. The Zapata Swamp is one of the region's most important wetland.
PRESIDENT OF THE CARIBBEAN ASSOCIATION OF FORENSIC SCIENTISTS
SAYS CUBA IS DOING EXCELLENT WORK IN THE FIELD
Havana, August 27(RHC)-- The President of the Caribbean Association of Forensic Scientists, Cheryl Corbin, said that Cuba has more experts working in criminology than other countries of the region.
Corbin, who also works with the United Nations agency for Drug Inspection in the Caribbean, praised the island's advances in the field -- from laboratory research to the National Anti-Drug Commission.
She pointed out that Cuba has programs at the international level and praised the island's techniques and experience, which are used to benefit its Caribbean neighbors.
The Caribbean Association of Forensic Scientists has 19 member nations and will hold its first meeting in September of next year.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA IMPROVES ITS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Santiago de Cuba, August 27(RHC)-- 98.6 percent of the population of eastern Santiago de Cuba receive medical attention from family doctors and nurses -- including over 200,000 inhabitants of mountainous regions.
In the municipality of Tercer Frente -- prior to 1959 -- poverty, malnutrition and the lack of medical assistance in the region was common place.
So far this year, in that same region, there has not been one single death of a child under five years of age, no maternal deaths and the number of low-birth weight children is the lowest in the province.
[c] 1999, Radio Habana Cuba
All rights reserved
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 27, 1999/No. 69
HAVANA.- The number of students in the Latin American School of Medical Sciences has now increased to nearly 2,000, with the arrival of a group of young Colombians receiving scholarships. New groups of students from Venezuela, Mexico, Uruguay and Costa Rica should arrive on September 1, when the course begins. The number of represented countries in the School has now increased to 19. According to the Dean, Dr. Juan Carrizo, the preparatory or premedical course was very satisfactorily concluded.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA.- A Caribbean Faculty of Medical Sciences will open in Santiago de Cuba, on August 30, with the aim of educating health professionals for the region. Studies will begin on September 1, with 117 Haitian students who have received a training course prior to beginning their medical course. The Faculty will be a part of Santiago de Cuba's Medical School, founded 37 years ago and has trained 18,596 physicians, dentists and nurses, including more than 600 foreigners.
HAVANA.- The Pan American and World Health Organizations praised the excellence of the Cuban national health system and the contribution of the Island's Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) for its permanent training and education. Dr. Patricio Yepez who represents both organizations in Havana, confirmed his recognition of the fluent exchange of first aid experiences to the Cuban Ministry of Health and also to the IPK, for its professional training in Microbiology, Virology,Infectology and Epidemiology of transmitted diseases.
From Radio Havana Cuba
CARIBBEAN SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES OPENS IN SANTIAGO
Santiago de Cuba, August 25(RHC)-- The Caribbean School of Medicine will open its doors next Monday, August 30th, in eastern Santiago de Cuba province.
The school will train medical students from the Caribbean -- part of Cuba's efforts to help improve the quality of life of peoples of the region.
Classes will begin on September 1st for 117 Haitian students who have already taken preparatory courses, raising their educational level to pre-med standards.
The Caribbean School of Medicine is affiliated with the Institute of Medical Sciences of Santiago de Cuba. The institute was founded 37 years ago, and has graduated some 18,596 health professionals, including over 600 foreign specialists.
7th INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON DENGUE CONTINUES IN HAVANA
Havana, August 25(RHC)-- The 7th International Seminar on Dengue is taking place at Havana's Pedro Kuri Institute of Tropical Medicine. The training seminar is being attended by some 100 specialists and scientists from Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, the United States and Cuba.
On Wednesday, participants had the opportunity to participate in three conferences given by professor Robert Shope from the University of Texas. His lectures dealt with the emergence of yellow fever in the Americas and dengue-like illnesses.
The 7th International Seminar on Dengue runs through September 3rd. Until then, participants will be dealing with important issues such as epidemiology and a recombinant dengue vaccine.
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 25, 1999/No. 68
HAVANA.- Cuba has offered medical aid and a desire to cooperate in the recovery efforts in Turkey, which on August 17 suffered a devastating earthquake, measuring 7.8 degrees on the Richter's scale, confirmed the Cuban Ministry on Sunday. In a short release, the Ministry announced that from the very first moment, Cuban President Fidel Castro sent his Turkish colleague, Suleiman Demirel, a message expressing his most sincere condolences. Castro's message to the Ankara's authorities also indicates that they can count on the solidarity of the Cuban people and Government.
WORLD AND PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS PRAISE CUBA'S ACHIEVEMENTS
Havana, August 24(RHC)-- The World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have praised the Cuban National Health System and contributions made by the island's Institute of Tropical Medicine to the training of health professionals.
Dr. Patricio Yepez, the representative of both organizations in Cuba, expressed his appreciation to officials from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health for what he called "an easy exchange of experiences related to primary health care."
The health official also praised the island's Institute of Tropical Medicine for the professional training it provides in microbiology, virology, infectious diseases and the epidemiology of transmittable diseases.
Yepez represented the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization during the opening ceremony of the 7th International Seminar on Dengue, which is currently underway in the Cuban capital.
The training seminar is being attended by 54 specialists from 11 nations, most of them coming from Latin America and the United States.
Dr. Raul Perez, from the Cuban Institute of Tropical Medicine stated that there are over 65,000 doctors in Cuba -- one for every 175 inhabitants. Perez also pointed to the low infant mortality rate on the island -- 6.3 for every 1000 live births -- comparable to that of developed nations.
NEWS from Cuba
Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 23, 1999/No. 67
HAVANA.- Cuba and Italy signed two agreements to create emergency programs for building collapse in Old Havana and the improvement of mental and reproductive health in Cienfuegos. The Cuban Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz and Italian Ambassador to Cuba Giuseppe Moscato signed the documents, which both are financed US$ 900 thousands.
MANAGUA.- As part of the Health Integral Plan proposed by Cuba to Central America, 81 Nicaraguan young people will travel to Havana to become nurses and sanitation, radiology and laboratory technicians . In a recent statement, Cuban Ambassador to Nicaragua and Business Representative Damian Arteaga pointed out that they will arrive in Cuba on September 1.
NEWS from Cuba Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 18, 1999/No. 65
CUBA'S INFANT MORTALITY RATE FOR 1999 EXPECTED TO DROP TO 7 PER 1,000 LIVE BIRTHS
Havana.- Cuba expects to end 1999 with an infant mortality rate of seven per thousand live births, a lower number than the majority of underdeveloped nations. Trabajadores newspaper stated that there were 112 fewer deaths in comparison with the same time span the previous year. Cuba, with a population of 11 million inhabitants, comes first at world level, with one doctor per 175 people,one nurse per 132 and one dentist per thousand. The health sector employs 300,000 workers.
NEWS from Cuba Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 16, 1999/No. 64
Havana.-The World Psychiatric Association (WPA) approved Cuba's membership to the organization during a congress held last week in Hamburg, Germany. It is an honor for Cuban specialists to be members of such a prestigious institution, said Eduardo Bernabe Ordaz, director of the Psychiatric Hospital in Havana, on his return to Havana from the German city. According to Ordaz, the WPA said that Cuban psychiatric work was excellent. Cuba will now collaborate with the WPA regarding professionals, technicians and research, affirmed Ordaz, who is also President of the Association of Latin American Psychiatrists.
Havana.- During the international office of epizootias for the Americas 5th Seminar, taking place in Havana, Cuban company LABIOFAM presented two vaccines and an advanced biotechnology rat killer, confirmed the company. Mayra alfonso, the cuban biological and pharmaceutical companys quality Control department s sub-director, announced the gumboro vaccine to fight the disease of the same name affecting fowls.
FRENCH FOUNDATION FRANCE LIBERTE DONATES MORE THAN $4 MILLION FOR
PRODUCTION OF ORTHOPEDIC EQUIPMENT
Havana, August 16 (RHC)-
The French Foundation, France Liberte has donated over 4 million dollars
to Cuba for the construction of 16 workshops to produce prosthetic limbs
and orthopedic equipment whose production will totally cover the country's
needs. The workshops will all be able to produce products for export. The
donation made by France Liberte, which is headed by Danielle Mitterand
,
will support the work of Havana's Frank Pais Orthopedic Hospital which
treated over 120 thousand patients last year of whom 7500 were operated
on.
PRESS RELEASE NO. 205 FOR ALL DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS
HAVANA, TUESDAY,AUGUST 10, 1999
Havana.- We are living in one of the most glorious moments of Cuban
Medicine; I am absolutely convinced of that, Cuban president Fidel
Castro Declared during the graduation ceremony of the Havana graduate school
of medical sciences held at Carlos Marx theater. The president affirmed
that this class completed its studies during a difficult time in the country.
And the graduates are a very important part of the Cuban human capital.
A Total of 1,100 received degrees in medical fields, thus bringing the
Number of Cuban doctors to more than 65,000, said Cuban Public Health Minister
Carlos Dotres. President Castro pointed out that Cuba has the largest number
of doctors per capita in the world.
SPEECH GIVEN BY DR. FIDEL CASTRO RUZ,
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA
TO THE STUDENTS GRADUATING FROM THE HAVANA HIGHER INSTITUTE
OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, AT THE KARL MARX THEATER ON AUGUST 9, 1999
NEWS from Cuba Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
August 6 , 1999/No. 60
Sancti Spiritus.- Cuba surpasses the World Children Summit's year 2000 goal, that 80% of the world's mothers breast feed their children in the first few months of life. In Cuba, 98 percent of mothers feed their children breast milk exclusively, until the fourth month, reported specialists in the National Maternal-Infant Office of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. This figure is the result of the movement of the Friend Hospitals for Mother and Child begun for the first time in 1992 by the World Health Organization and the United Nations
Sun, 1 Aug 1999
From: "Compañero" companyero@mindspring.com
HAVANA.- Cuban specialists are organizing an international workshop on the biologic control of diseases, such as malaria and dengue, to take place in Vientiane, Republic of Laos. Jorge Martinez Lopez, an official of LABIOFAM, a company of the Agriculture Ministry, said researchers and professionals from Southeast Asia, Latin America and the LABIOFAM company will participate in the October event."
July
Cuban Vaccine May Open Window in US Blockade
29 Jul 1999, IGC News Desk,
By Patricia Grogg
SMITHKLINE BEECHAM AND THE FINLAY INSTITUTE OF CUBA REACH AGREEMENT ON VACCINE AGAINST BACTERIAL MENINGITIS
Cuba press release 186 FOR ALL DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS
HAVANA, SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1999 APC
EUROPEAN NGO GIVES HUMANITARIAN AID FOR CUBAN POPULATION HAVANA.
The European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) will donate more
than US$ 7 million in food, sanitary material and medicines for the Cuban
population. Maria Beatriz Vinche, ECHO representative in Cuba, informed
Cuba of the sixth global plan to be carried out in the Island, aiming to
help the Cuban population in the public health sector.
HAVANA, THURSDAY,
JULY 01, 1999 RIO DE JANEIRO.-
CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO CARRIED OUT A FULL PROGRAM
OF ACTIVITIES YESTERDAY WHICH INCLUDED ATTENDING THE INAUGURATION OF A
SOCIAL WORK EVENT, A MEETING WITH BUSINESSMEN AND A CEREMONY N THE UNIVERSITY.
THE CUBAN LEADER TRAVELLED THIS MORNING TO THE CITY OF NITEROI, FACING
RIO ACROSS THE BAY, WHERE HE PARTICIPATED IN THE OPENING OF A FAMILY
DOCTORS' CLINIC - CENTRES WHICH ARE PARALLELED IN THE CUBAN SYSTEM.
THE CLINIC HAS BEEN NAMED AFTER COMMANDER JESUS MONTANE OROPESA, A RECENTLY
DECEASED CUBAN REVOLUTION COMMANDER. WHILST IN NITEROI, FIDEL VISITED THE
ART MUSEUM. LATER, THE CUBAN LEADER WAS DECORATED BY THE MUNICIPALITY OF
NITEROI, WHERE FOR THE LAST DECADE CUBA HAS COLLABORATED WIDELY WITH
THE HEALTH SECTOR. FIDEL RECEIVED THE INDIO ARARIBOIA MEDAL, ONE OF
THE BRAZILIAN SYMBOLS OF STRUGGLES AGAINST THE VARIOUS 17TH CENTURY EUROPEAN
INVASIONS SUFFERED BY THE COUNTRY WHEN IT WAS A PORTUGUESE COLONY.
June
HAVANA, SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1999
HAVANA.- Many issues, including biological factors, violence in schools and drug addiction, will be discussed by representatives from over 20 countries in the 8th Latin American Scientific Conference on Special Education. The event, to be held in Havana from July 19-23, will mainly focus on prevention and special education needs, analyzing monetary limitations, social factors and behavior which negatively affect the teaching and training of children. Prevention, more than treatment or discussion of problems, is the newest element in the approach to special education, according to Iiana Musivais, Director of the Latin American Special Education Reference Center, which is sponsoring the conference along with the Cuban Ministry of Education.
HAVANA.- A representation of the 585 university students from Africa and the Middle East who will graduate in Cuba this year, received honors from the Cuban Friendship with the Peoples Institute, in an act held here. Angel Abascal, Cuban Education Vice-Minister, congratulated the young people and assured they are ready to face their countries' tough conditions and to contribute in their future development. This is only an example of the Cuban internationalism, said Abascal referring to the current graduation which comprises agronomists, engineers, and physicians. The graduated belong to humble families of more than 17 African countries, one of the Middle East, and another of Asia."
HAVANA, FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1999
MANAGUA.- NICARAGUAN HEALTH VICE MINISTER, MARIANGELES ARGUELLO, THANKED CUBA FOR SENDING 3,500 KILOGRAMS OF BIORAT (A CUBAN BIOLOGICAL RAT POISON), TO STOP A LEPTOSPIROSIS OUTBREAK IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE COUNTRY. LEPTOSPIRA IS A FATAL DESEASE TRANSMITTED BY RATS. CUBAN SCIENTISTS HAVE CREATED BIORAT FOR SPECIFICALLY EXTERMINATING THIS TYPE OF RODENT AND IT IS HARMLESS OTHER ANIMALS AND HUMANS. IN A STATEMENT TO PRENSA LATINA ON BEHALF OF HER GOVERNMENT, ARGUELLO THANKED THE CUBAN PEOPLE FOR ONCE AGAIN OFFERING THEIR HELP, AND ESPECIALLY AT THE PRESENT TIME. THE LEPTOSPIROSIS OUTBREAK HAS OCCURRED IN THE RIO SAN JUAN AREA, SOME 300 KILOMETERS SOUTHEAST OF THE CITY.
Wednesday, June 23, 1999 - Santa Clara, California
500 Computers from California Bound for Cuban Hospitals
From the heart of Silicon Valley in California some 500 donated computers are leaving Monday bound for Cuban hospitals and clinics. These computers have been collected and prepared by the California based USA/Cuba InfoMed, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to support public health and medical informatics in Cuba, and in other nations, via Cuba.
For the past year the volunteers of USA/Cuba InfoMed have worked evenings and weekends to prepare the cargo of the current shipment. The 500 computers (mostly 486 type computers, and even some older 386's) leaving this week will add to the 800 previously sent by this organization.
"Many more are needed" says Engineer David Wald, from Santa Clara and national director of the group, "Cuba has hundreds of hospitals, thousands of clinics, and a few hundred thousand health professionals, all very eager to make good use of these tools for the benefit of their patients".
The computers are to be connected to the Cuban public health network (INFOMED) and will allow individuals and institutions to access current medical information databases (from Cuba and abroad), to consult with colleagues across the island and the world, as well to post requests for scarce medicines and resources which may not be available locally for the treatment of their patients.
"The scarcity of resources for health in Cuba has a very simple explanation: the U.S. Embargo" says Dr. Juan Reardon, Epidemiologist from Martinez and co-founder of the organization.
"Even when the Cuban government channels 10 percent of the state budget and 8.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product into the health sector, as it did last year, the brutal U.S. blockade of Cuba has cost the country's health system 1.2 billion dollars during the last eight years, and this fact has been reflected in the deterioration of some institutions, and shortages of medicines and other supplies".
p According to Dr. Reardon: "What is really amazing is that under the harsh conditions of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, the Cuban health care workers have continued to work selflessly to maintain and increase the population's current levels of health care." Health indicators like infant mortality (7.1 per 1000 live births, compared to the world average of 59), the under-five mortality rate (9.2 per 1000 live births, compared to 87 for the world average and the life expectancy of 75 years, clearly reflect the priority given to health in Cuba by both the government and the health professionals in the field.
"Cuba's example shows that it is possible, even under the worst conditions, to put people first, if the political will is there. This is Cuba's message to the rest of the world" he added.
Although a recently conducted Gallup-poll (May 7-9 ,1999) indicated that the majority of Americans (51%) supports ending the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba and that 71% of Americans support re-establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba, little improvementis observed coming out of Washington. Not only are Americans prohibited by their own government from traveling to Cuba, but humanitarian donations like the one from USA/Cuba InfoMed have to travel up to Eastern Canada, or elsewhere, to be placed in a Cuban ship going to Cuba. In what has been described as a U.S. government imposed de-facto-blockade, any ship, of any country, going to a Cuban harbor is banned from U.S. ports for six months, which is quite a deterrent for most people in the freight business. International laws prohibit embargoes on food, medicine and medical equipment. Nevertheless U.S. regulations for licensing purchases of medicine, supplies and health care equipment, remain convoluted and impractical. Medical purchases from the United States will remain a "fantasy" as long as the 37-year embargo is in place.
"The obstacles, forms, requirements and restrictions are such that no ordinary business people will want to undergo these difficulties. Groups like ours, as well as others throughout the U.S. go the extra mile and pay the extra price to bring our to countries and peoples closer together, but we hope that soon normal common-sense business transactions can take place. The U.S. Congress is getting closer to represent the thoughts and feelings of the American people." said David Wald, in reference to legislation introduced by Congressman Jose Serrano (H.R. 1644), and 137 co-sponsors. Senator Dodd introduced similar legislation in the Senate (S 926), bill which has currently 19 co-sponsors.
USA/Cuba InfoMed is grateful to congressman Tom Campbell (R-Campbell) and all the other San Francisco Bay Area Congress representatives (George Miller, Tom Lantos, Sam Farr, Anna Eshoo, Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Zoe Lofgren, Pete Stark) as well as Congress representatives from other areas (Jim McDermott, William Delahunt, Tom Barret, Lee Hamilton, Chris Shays, John LaFalce and Esteban Torres) whose support was instrumental in securing the right of USA/Cuba InfoMed volunteers to deliver the donated computers to doctors and Health care professionals in Cuba.
"We gladly do this volunteer work because we know that we are not only embracing our Cuban colleagues, but we are also contributing to the health of many people from all over the world who benefit from Cuba's medical expertise and dedication. We have seen this first hand and we encourage American health professionals to visit and see for themselves" states Brigid Simms, from Albany, CA, a Public Health Educator and member of the group.
Jose Fernandez, a Cuban-American from Richmond, CA, and also member of the group adds: "Cuba has thousands of doctors and nurses in some 50 countries; In rural South Africa alone there are 400 Cuban doctors; Cuba has welcomed, treated and cared for 14,000 Chernobyl kids from the Ukraine; Cuba sent hundreds of doctors to help in Central America after Hurricane Mitch, and even in the area of medical networks and medical informatics Cuba's INFOMED professionals are contributing to Brazil, Mexico, Peru,Guyana, and Jamaica, among others. The Cubans do one thing for us: They keep challenging our imagination!"
USA/Cuba InfoMed has no paid staff and welcomes financial and computer equipment donations. We are also always in need of more volunteers.
To contact USA/Cuba InfoMed:
phone: 408-243-4359 fax: 408-243-1229
e-mail: david@cubasolidarity.net
www : www.cubasolidarity.net
post: P.O. Box 450 Santa Clara, CA 95052
April
HAVANA, TUESDAY, 27 Apr 1999
PRESS RELEASE NRO. 115
HAVANA.- Mirta Roses Periago, Vice-Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PHO) , arrived in Havana last Saturday in order to attend the sub-regional meeting of PHO managers, to be held here until next Wednesday. Upon arrival, Roses Periago stated that the meeting is held three times a year, with the attendance of representatives from all countries in the region: Central America, Haiti, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Cuba will all participate in the Cuban event.
HAVANA, MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1999 APC
HAVANA.- President Fidel Castro exhorted doctors and other Cuban health specialists working in Central America and Haiti to continue giving aid to those people. You now have the possibility to do well and that is good, said Fidel to the doctors during the final session of the 8th Congress of Cuban Health Workers. During talks held with heads of the participants to these countries, Fidel asked about the impact of the doctors on the rural population. During the Congress, the doctors reiterated their willingness to stay as long as necessary, despite difficult conditions.
Havana, Wednesday, April 21, 1999 Press Releases #111-#112.
Havana.- General practitioners, psychologists, nurses and social workers from over 30 countries confirmed their attendance to the Gerontovida 99 convention which will be held in Havana in November. Most of the professionals are coming from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. Specialized associations from the region unanimously agreed on Cuba hosting the convention given the prestige of the island's health system and the attention granted to people over 60, which account for 13,1% of the whole cuban population.
Havana.- Pharmachem, a us-based pharmaceutical company is displaying its products at the "health for all" medical fair for the first time since the united states enforced its blockade of Cuba almost 40 years ago. Pharmachem manager Michael Doods said that after nine months of negotiations, his company was granted a license by the us department of the treasury to exhibit its pharmaceutical products at the Havana medical fair. Over 470 firms from 37 countries are attending the show, which will conclude on Friday. La Paz.- The population from about 40 Bolivian poor towns and neighborhoods was celebrating the trip of 70 young nationals to Cuba to study medicine. After several days of distress, the Bolivian sustainable development ministry's scholarship department released a communiqué stating that priority has been given to students from the poorest areas as long as they met the required student's performance.
Cuba Medical Technology Fair
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION.
La Havana. Cuba
HEALTH FOR ALL MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY FAIR -The spirit of a century
* Around 500 firms attend the region's largest biennial exposition of medical
technology * A U.S. company, Pharmachem, will be represented for the first
time BY MARELYS VALENCIA ALMEIDA (Granma International staff writer)
OF the nine Health for All Medical Technology Fairs that have been held in Havana, this ninth edition was the most representative of this century's technological spirit, displaying a wide range of innovative health care products designed to improve the quality of life.
The latest generation of medicines, diagnostic equipment, modern laboratory and dental instruments - even eco-friendly cosmetic lines - were exhibited by nearly 500 companies, including SIEMENS of Germany; FARMAVENDA of Italy; NCI, EUROTRADE and AGEM of Spain; and RESIMEVIS of the Virgin Islands. "It was evident that the promotional work done before the event, bolstered by Cuba's economic recovery, encouraged the participation of numerous large businesses," said Alfonso Sánchez, member of the organizing committee and managing director of MediCuba.
Many countries' products were represented at the fair for the first time, including Costa Rica, Saint Martin, Viet Nam and the United States. Meanwhile, Spain, Germany, Italy and Mexico, which have participated in Health for All fairs several times, were the most represented.
U.S. PARTICIPATES WITH PHARMACHEM
Pharmachem, a year-old business from the United States, broke the ice
after 40 years of U.S. businesses not attending any Cuban trade fair. At
the beginning of January, representatives of Western Union planned to display
some of their products at an encounter with Cuban medical firms, but their
plans were canceled by U.S. restrictions.
Pharmachem, on the other hand, has obtained a license from the U.S. government to sell medicine and medical equipment to Cuba. According to Michael R. Todds, president of the Florida-based company which plans on distributing packets of prescription medicines to individuals and companies in Cuba, many people in the United States are scared away from Cuba by their government's regulations. He added that it is unthinkable to import Cuban products, because U.S. laws are very strict concerning this activity.
For now, Pharmachem is taking these first steps, in the opinion of Todds,
with the objective of helping Cubans and "making a little bit of money."
Sánchez said that a couple months ago, MediCuba began conversations
with Pharmachem and other U.S. firms whose names he didn't reveal. It would
be very convenient, he said, for Cuba to receive certain quality medicines,
medical goods and equipment from the United States due to its geographic
proximity.
FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGIES
Medical technology is changing rapidly. Today, new technology can seem
frightening, but with the aid of advanced computers, doctors can offer
more comfortable procedures which are less invasive to the patient and
are incomparably precise. Chemists, physicists, cybernetic engineers and
mathematicians are working along with doctors to development technology
to carry out some kinds of surgery that used to be unthinkable. Just a
few years ago, instruments like the laser scalpel, now being produced in
Cuba, would have been considered science fiction.
Cuba won seven medals from the fair: one for the Cardiocid-BS, an electrocardiograph machine which offers a decoded diagnosis - in other words, using words rather than numbers. The machine was designed by specialists from the Digital Research Center. In addition, the National Telemedicine Network was inaugurated during the fair. This network will allow doctors and others to witness an operation from any hospital in Cuba. Its reference center will at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Havana.
The list of the modern medical technology exhibited would be long indeed, but I can assure you that many people are thankful for this spectacular science fair."
Cuban News from Havana Cuban Interests Section
April 21 , 1999
Havana.- General practitioners, psychologists, nurses and social workers from over 30 countries confirmed their attendance to the Gerontovida 99 Convention which will be held in Havana in November. Most of the professionals are coming from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. specialized associations from the region unanimously agreed on Cuba hosting the convention given the prestige of the island's health system and the attention granted to people over 60, which account for 13,1% of the whole Cuban population.
Havana.- Pharmachem, a US-based pharmaceutical company is displaying its products at the"Health for all" Medical Fairfor the first time. Pharmachem manager Michael Doods said that after nine months of negotiations, his company was granted a license by the US department of the treasury to exhibit its pharmaceutical products at the Havana Medical Fair. Over 470 firms from 37 countries are attending the show, which will conclude on Friday.
Havana- The population from about 40 Bolivian poor towns and neighborhoods was celebrating the trip of 70 young nationals to Cuba to study medicine. After several days of distress, the Bolivian sustainable development ministry's scholarship department released a communiqué stating that priority has been given to students from the poorest areas as long as they met the required student's performance.
HAVANA, TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1999
PRESS RELEASE NO.110
The 9th InternationalMedical Technology Fair "Health for All" opened
yesterday in Havana with 474 firms from 37 countries attending. The Cuban
Minister of Public Health, Carlos Dotres, said at the opening ceremony
that the event will be an opportunity for signing new agreements and investments
deals in this field. Trade relations between producers and consumers of
health products will also be strengthened. The fair will close on April
23."
Monday April 19, 1999
Cuban Public Health Virtual University Inaugurates "Classrooms Without
Borders".
Cuba Inaugurates National Telemedicine Network To Transmit Medical
Images
By Jose de la Osa
The medical education project "Classrooms Without Borders" is now a reality in Cuba with the official inauguration on April 19 in Havana of the first 12 courses of Cuba's Public Health Virtual University. Thirty additional courses are expected to be added to the curriculum during 1999.
Cuba continues to take advantage of the developments in the areas of telecommunications and informatics to promote and facilitate the continuous training of Cuban health professionals and technicians who will receive current scientific and technical information via the Virtual University.
These new "virtual classrooms" are being started in the computer laboratories of Cuba's 21 medical schools and four dental schools, which are located throughout a country in which each province has at least one medical school. Additionally, 50 municipalities are gearing up to participate in the project with the development of "meeting sites" or "sites of presence". The development of these sites as well as the required technological infrastructure have the support of UNICEF, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). "Distance learning" will be available in practically every corner of the country through INFOMED, Cuba's Public Health Informatics Network.
The inauguration of the virtual university took place in the National Medical Library. The library has 15 modern computers which allow users access to medical information resources, both in Cuba and abroad, a service available through INFOMED as well as the library's own Intranet. Course registration will be take place via electronic mail (infomed@sld.cu). The courses include: "Bronchial Asthma", "Genetics for Local Public Health Workers", "Bio-climatic Architecture and Sustainable Development", "Basic Household Hygiene" and a course leading to a "Diploma in Medical Genetics". To promote computer skills, courses are offered in "Computer Networks", "Windows 95" and "MSWord".
Furthermore, Doctor Jose Baudilio Jardines, Vice Minister for Medical Education of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, announced that during the Medical Technology Fair "Health for All" (April 24, 1999) Cuba will inaugurate the National Telemedicine Network . This network will make possible the immediate transmission of clinical test results and secondary medical opinions to remotely located professionals. The network will allow the sharing of graphic images such as X-rays, ultrasound pictures, CAT Scans, and pathology reports from biopsies. All this technology will allow to improve the quality of health care in Cuba.
The leading institution of the National Telemedicine Network is Hospital
"Hermanos Ameijeiras" in Havana. This hospital is linked with key hospitals
in the cities of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba.
Jose A. de la Osa
April 16, 1999 Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
Havana.- Experts of institutions related to the Cuban and British biotechnological and pharmaceutical industry met here to explore Cubas scientific potentialities and productive capacity. Dr. Blanca Tormo, of the Havana immunology center, told Prensa Latina the meeting addressed the scientific,research and production capacity of the Cuban scientific centers in order to promote and market future lines of development.
Havana.- Bolivia`s interest in the Cuban health system was expressed during an event on this topic that was attended by Cuban officials. The event took place during the 3rd Cuban book fair held at the municipal library of La Paz. A video tape on the Cuban health system was shown at the beginning of the meeting. Cuban Dr. Lazaro Vina, specialist in family medicine talked during the meeting. Cuban cultural and press attache, Ibis Alvisa, also attended the event.
HAVANA, THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1999
PRESS RELEASE NRO. 106
LA PAZ.- Cuba's offer granting Bolivia 70 medical scholarships was highlighted by the Catholic newspaper Presencia and several Bolivian radio stations. The Cuban Ambassador to Bolivia, Raul Barzaga, confirmed the news.
BEIJING.- Hospital directors from China and Cuba signed an agreement for cooperation and research in the fields of cardiology, surgery, urology and nephrology. Dr. Raul Gomez Cabrera, director of the Ameijeiras Brothers Hospital and Dr. Gao Dong Chen, from the Beijing Hospital, signed the agreement. The hospitals will exchange scientific and medical information and carry out joint research projects and surgical operations. The agreement includes exchange and joint research in heart surgery and angiology.
HAVANA.- The mortality rate for medical emergencies dropped from 35% to 22% after the Comprehensive Medical Emergency System was implemented in 1995, said Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres. During a masterly lecture given at the First Congress on Emergencies and Attention to People in Serious Conditions (URGRAV'99), Dotres said, thanks to this system, mortality during the transportation of patients in serious condition was also reduced from 0.7% in 1997 to 0.2% in 1998.
HAVANA.- Medical emergency expertise, all the way from the local community to the hospital's intensive care unit, is being shared by Cuban and other international authorities at an event which opened here yesterday. Attended by about 1,500 specialists from 40 countries, the 1st Congress on Emergencies and Attention to People in Serious Conditions (URGRAV'99) is addressing topics such as resuscitation in heart, lung or brain failure and accidents, brain protection, emergency systems, etc. The head of the congress' organizing committee, Dr. Alvaro Sosa Acosta, told the press that outstanding figures from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Cuba and other countries will address interesting issues such as "the trained witness in the emergency situation.
HAVANA.- MEDICA'99, an event sponsored by the Cuba-Eurotop European Center of Business Cooperation from Belgium, will be held at the Palco Hotel from April 19-23. Sources from the Cuban Chamber of Commerce confirmed that thirteen companies from France, Germany, Spain and Ireland will attend the event. The agenda of this first meeting of the medical and pharmaceutical sectors will include visits to the "Health for All" International Show which will take place in Pabexpo at the same time.
HAVANA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1999
PRESS RELEASE NRO. 105
BANI, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.- Cuba has donated a polytechnic clinic to this city where Maximo Gomez was born. With a 500-student capacity and an area of 3500 square meters the center is built two kilometers from Bani, which Cuban President Fidel Castro officially visited in August, after participating in a summit of statesmen of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORO).
HAVANA.- The Cuban surgical therapy for retinitis pigmentosa (a disease causing deterioration of the retina and disturbance to the nerves of the eye) continues to be successful, after twelve years of use of this method developed by Professor Orfilio Pelaez, the distinguished Cuban ophthalmologist.In statements to Prensa Latina, the director of the International Center of Retinitis Pigmentosa -known as Camilo Cienfuegos Clinic- said that more than 3000 people from 70 countries have received specialized assistance here over the last seven years.
HAVANA.- Canadian firm MDS Nordion, producer of high tech medicines,awarded five Cuban institutions and individuals for outstanding results in the struggle against cancer. The Cuban Public Health Ministry, the National Program Against Cancer, the Vice-Ministers of Public Health, Ramon Diaz Vallina and Julian Garate, and scientist Rolando Camcho received the awards for their contribution in "the implementation of coherent policies of research, prevention and treatment of the illness".
SANCTI SPIRITUS, CUBA.- Last year showed such an increase in medical attention to the Cuban people as to mark a virtual recovery to previous levels, revealed Dr.Carlos Dotres, Minister of Public Health (MINSAP). Dotres told Prensa Latina that fewer than a million patients were seen in Cuban hospitals in 1998 because of the success of the Emergency System of Primary Health Care. The two year program extends to 70 municipalities (out of 169 in the country), and provides family medical offices, policlinics, hospitals and highly specialized ambulances.
HAVANA.- World-renowned neuroscientists and Cuban expertsfrom the National Center of Scientific Research agreed to collaborate in the mapping of the human brain. This project will permit the study of the anatomic and functional characteristics of the brain through neuroimaging techniques,including electrocerebral tomography, the technique developed by the Cuban Center of Neurosciences. The electric cerebral tomograph created by Cuban experts is now in the process of validation in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Cuba.
HAVANA.- Scientists from the Center of Genetic and Biotechnical Engineering demonstrated that the vaccine "GAVAC" is 99% efficient against a kind of chigger living in Central America, Africa and Asia: the boofilus annulatus. The creators of the vaccine emphasized that the vaccine does not aim to kill the parasite, but to steadily control the numbers in successive generations by reducing its reproductive capacity.
Sunday, 11 April 1999
Havana.- President Fidel Castro bid farewell yesterday Gambian President
Alhaji j. J. Jammeh Yahya. The president is returning to His country with
a group of doctors he had requested Fidel Castro During his visit to Cuba.
Jammeh Yahya met Fidel Castro and other top Officials to examine possibilities
to widen collaboration between Cuba and Gambia, which poverty, mortality
due to diseases, are Reaching alarming numbers.
Managua.- Central American health ministers agreed to highlight the Medical aid given by Cuba to the population of the most affected area By Mitch hurricane, that killed more than 10,000 dead. In exclusive Statements to Prensa Latina, Nicaraguan health minister, Martha McCoy, highlighted the work done by the Cuba doctors and nurses, who -said- have obtained good results in the areas where they are diminishing significantly the historic morbi-mortality rates. The Said on Monday will arrive in Nicaragua another group of 30 cuban Professionals. They will be distributed in the mining triangle, in the autonomous region of the north Atlantic.
Havana.- A total of 63 million of doses of the vaccine against Poliomyelitis have been applied in Cuba during the 38 immunization Campaigns, which minor population under 53 years old is free from The illness, eradicated in Cuba. During the national act of the Second part of the current campaign, carried out in the clinic of Lawton, Patricio Yepez in Havana city, the representative of the WHP/OFH in Cuba highlighted the effort made in the prevention and Control of the illnesses and the solidarity of Mexico when it Contributes with financing. Engineer Alfredo Missair, delegate-Representative of the UNICEF in Cuba, said the immunization of the Island is of 98,2%, this number surpasses the aim of the international sanitary organizations for the year 2000 that is of 95%.
April 10, 1999
Gambia president says Cuba sending more doctors
BANJUL, April 10 (Reuters) - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh returned
home from a visit to Cuba on Saturday, saying that it had promised to send
more doctors to his West African nation."Gambia and Cuba have signed bilateral
cooperation (deals) in many fields - - health, education,tourism, agriculture
and culture,'' he told reporters."There will be more Cuban doctors in the
Gambia. Every health centre (will have) two Cuban doctors" he said, adding
that Cuba would provide scholarships for Gambians to study medicine and
nursing. At present, 20 Cuban doctors work in the former British colony.
Havana, Friday, April 9, 1999
Kiev.- Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma awarded cuban president Fidel
Castro the first degree of the order "count Yaroslav Mudrovo," in recognition
of the aid given by Cuba to the affected children of The Chernobyl accident.
Foreign relations minister Roberto Robaina And health minister Carlos Dotres
received the second-degree Decoration of this order. The third-degree of
the order was granted To the cuban ambassador to the Ukraine, Sergio Lopez,
and several Doctors, who gave medical assistance to the Ukrainian children,
Victims of radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Havana, Thursday 8 April
PRESS RELEASES NO. 99/100
Havana.- The expansion of a medical program between Cuba and the Ukraine was discussed by public health ministers in Havana, according To the national news agency. Ukrainian minister Raiza Vogotiriova and her cuban counterpart Carlos Dotres analyzed the implementation of The cuban system of primary medical care in the Ukraine, due to an Increase of disease, mortality and morbidity rates in both children And adults there. In addition to the general system, Vogotiriova was interested in the Cubanvaccine against hepatitis , the possible purchase of medicines and the exchange of experts.
Havana.- A trial using monkeys is in progress to test the Efficiency of a cuban monoclonal antibody(MAB), capable of Inhibiting the capacity of metastasis in epithelial tumors in rats. "b7," created at the cuban center of molecular immunology (CIM), has Proved itself in the reduction of the metastasisof melanomas in Certain cells and for more than a month has been applied to monkeys, Dr. Sergio Arce Campuzano told Prensa Latina.
Havana.- Cuba and India signed a bilateral economic collaboration Agreement and scientific-technical exchange, said the national Information agency (AIN). The document was signed by Basundhara Raje, Minister of state for Indian foreign relations, and Rosa Elena Simeon, cuban minister of science, technology and environment. Both Ministers led delegations of their countries to the fourth session of The joint commission of the cuban-Indian economic and scientific- technical collaboration, held for two days. This agreement represents Possibilities for exchange in the areas of agriculture,health, Sports and the use of nonconventional energy sources.
Havana.- The political will, the development of attention to health, and the technological response has made health in Cuba a fact, Stated Patricio Yepez, representative of the world health Organization (who) and Pan-American health organizations (PAHO) on the Island. Such conditions make world health day (April 7) a daily Reality extending to all spheres of society, Yepez added.
Cuba PRESS RELEASE Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999
Havana.- Indian minister of state for foreign relations Vasundhara Raje arrived in Havana for an offical visit accompanied by a large Government delegation. The delegation will participate in the fourth Session of the joint commission for economic and scientific-technical Collaboration April 5-7 at the science, technology and environment Ministry. "I am accompanied by agriculture,health and foreign Relations specialists, who will develop a wide work agenda with their Cuban counterparts in order to achieve our goals," said Vasundhara Raje
Caracas.- The Venezuelan press highlighted the recent visit to Cuba Of first lady Maribel Rodriguez, particularly the granting to Venezuela of 100 scholarships for Venezuelan medical students. During her three-day visit in Havana, on the occasion of the bicentennial anniversary of Simon Bolivar's stay in Havana, the wife of president Hugo Chavez discussed the possibility of exchange programs between the two Countries, in the fields of medical-assistance, education and Agriculture, with the cuban authorities.
Sancti Spiritus.- Cuba is one of the few nations in the world where the genetic services, developed in the last 25 years using state-of- The-art technology and diagnostic methods, are offered to all the Population. Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) advisor Victor B. Pechaszadeh told Prensa Latina that the equality and educational work Existing in all parts of the island are the most important elements. "I have seen a real concern in Cuba because people decide about their own descendent. All societies do not have the necessary resources to offer these expensive genetic services."
Havana Thursday, 1 April 1999
Cuba Press Release No 95 Date:
HAVANA.- Over 15,000 children and 2,000 adults from Chernobyl, Ukraine, have received care in Cuban health centers since 1990. Children from the area affected by the explosion of a nuclear reactor continue arriving in Cuba every 45 days. This action has made Cuba into the country that has offered the most medical assistance to these people. Cuban Public Health Minister, Carlos Dotres, was the director of Tarara for many years. Tarara is the center where most of the medical services are given without charge to the Ukranians. Dotres stated that medical care has been offered to 500 children who suffer from cancer of the blood and seven transplants of bone marrow have been made. There were also 14 operations of cardiovascular surgery, two kidney transplants, and more than a hundred operations on malignant and benign tumors. The treatment of 800 sick people who suffer from vitiligo, alopecia and psoriasis was also given, according to the minister.
March
100 Cuban Doctors to Niger. Wed, 31 Mar 1999
(c) Copyright GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION.
Total or partial reproduction of the articles in this Website is authorized, as long as the source of the copyright, is included.
First Cuban doctors depart along with President Baré Mainasara.
The president of Niger's trip to Cuba results in increased collaboration
between the two nations and may lead to the shipment of as many as 500
doctors to the African nation
BY ANTONIO PANEQUE BRIZUELAS (Granma International staff writer)
The recent stay of Niger's President, Ibrahim Baré Mainassara, and his meeting with Fidel Castro,improved bilateral ties, resulting in the proposed shipment of 100 doctors to Niger, 13 of whom left in the same plane as the president. These figures represent the first group of as many as 500 doctors who may leave for Niger to work in places of high demand. The agreement stems from a previous accord proposed by a joint commission between the two countries.
Baré Mainassara, Niger's first president to visit the island, said in a press conference that his stay in Cuba met his expectations. He also expressed his satisfaction in having spoken with a man such as Fidel, who is "much loved by Niger society." He also said that Fidel expressed his desire to help the African country in any way possible. "It was much more than we expected," he added.
Baré Mainassara, who came to the island as the head of a prominent delegation and invited by Fidel Castro, said that Cuba's help will be principally directed toward health concerns. He said that "the people of Niger will be eternally grateful for Cuba's gesture of solidarity."
In other statements in Havana, Baré Mainassara said that Cuba serves as an example for the developing world and was thankful for Cuba's collaboration with the rest of humanity. In official conversations both leaders and their respective delegations discussed international issues and bilateral relations. The official reception ceremony took place in the Plaza de la Bandera, in front of Cuban government headquarters in Revolution Square. The high dignitary was received at José Martí International Airport by Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina.
Niger's president placed a floral wreath before the monument of José Martí in Revolution Square and visited the José Martí Memorial. Afterwards, he went to the Latin American School of Medical Science, where Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran students take classes. He also traveled to Varadero, in the province of Matanzas (100 kilometers east of the capital). In Havana, he visited Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, the Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center, the City Museum, and Old Havana. He also met with African diplomats accredited on the island.
23 YEARS OF RELATIONS.
Niger, formerly a French colony, obtained its independence in 1960
- the same year it ratified its first constitution. Supplying a quarter
of the world's uranium (90 percentof its exports), the country has the
greatest level of poverty in West Africa and is one of the most underdeveloped
countries in the world.
Cuba and Niger established diplomatic relations on April 25, 1976, and one year later, in March of 1977, the two countries signed their first agreements. These agreements dealt with business and scientific-technical trade, such as tax exemptions and relations between foreign ministries, and were the result of the sessions of the first bilateral joint commission.
They also reached agreements to lay the foundation for possible cooperation in industrial, sugar,construction, and public health sectors. The last agreement may result in the transfer of medical and paramedical personnel to the African nation
HAVANA, FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1999
Cuba News Release No.91
Pueblo Nuevo, Nicaragua.- "Our Mission Is Free Of Charge. It Is An Aid From The Cuban People To The Nicaraguan Victims Of Hurricane Mitch," Dr. Pablo Lorie Exposito Told The People From A Rural Community. His Explanation Was Necessary Because When The Cuban Medical Brigade Arrived In Town There Was A Sign Asking For Donations To Pay For The Medical Attention The Cubans Will Give. As Soon As We Were Aware Of This Situation, Which For Them Was Normal,We Ordered To Withdraw The Sign And Explained The Population That We Were There As Part Of Cuba's Free Humanitarian Cooperation, Said Lorie. Ciego De Avila, Cuba.- Over 200 Students From The Caribbean Who Are Currently Learning Spanish In Cuba Will Enter Colleges Next Year. The Rector Of The University Of Ciego De Avila, Dr. Hipolito Peralta, told The Press That About 100 Caribbean Students Will Begin Classes In September. They Will Take Courses On Agricultural Engineering, Accountancy, Agronomy And Physical Education. Some Of Them Will Also Study Medicine And Teaching.
*** 24-Mar-99 *** Title: TRADE/HEALTH-JAMAICA: Looking to Cuba For Some Cures By Eulalee Thompson
KINGSTON, Mar 24 (IPS) - As the cost of medical care and prescription drugs continue to rise here some local health facilities are looking to neighbouring Cuba where much cheaper drugs can be had.
Only last week one of the largest pharmaceutical companies here, Lascelles Laboratories, had a major launch of a plan to start the importation of pharmaceutical supplies from Cuba.
Principals of the company say they will import in the first instance, a cholesterol-lowering drug made in Cuba called Ateromixol. The drug, a small, blue tablet, is made from the sugar cane wax which is found in the plant's rind or trash which many Jamaicans just throw out.
"We want to know that we can bring in drugs that have proven efficacy but yet still affordable for the Jamaican market and we will be working with the local medical community to visit Cuba and identify other medical products that can be brought back to Jamaica," said Paul Thomas, chief executive officer of Lascelles.
A supply of 30 Ateromixol tablets will be sold here for about 22 dollars compared to about 82 dollars for competing brands of cholesterol-lowering drugs imported from North America and Europe.
Dr. Knox Hagley, head of the University of the West Indies' Community Health and Psychiatric Department said that the anecdotal evidence here is that the drug successfully lowers the cholesterol level, which is a growing health concern as more and more persons develop the lifestyle-related illness.
"There are other drugs of course, which are effective in lowering the cholesterol but they might cause minor changes in the liver. There were no such side effects in the Ateromixol and this is why we are so interested in the drug," he said. Whyte said that there is enough documentary evidence to indicate that this method of putting patients "under" in preparation for surgery, works effectively. "The implications here are vast in that there are
Another general practitioner here, Dr. L. Donovan Whyte, recently visited Cuba along with some of his colleagues on a fact-finding mission. He said that he observed that because of that country's inability to obtain foreign products, health officials were utilizing the best of alternative and conventional care in such areas as anesthesia, the treatment of fibroids, chronic leg ulcers and enlarged prostates.
All these less expensive techniques, Whyte hopes to make use of here. "For anesthesia for example, the alternative is that ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture or electro-acupuncture. It is cheaper, requiring a one-time investment in the acupuncture equipment and can save lives since there is no risk associated with drug toxicity," he said. Many people who are allergic to anaesthetic medications...and using this method, we can save a lot of time and money," he said.
To treat enlarged prostate, Whyte said he is interested in some research being done on the pumpkin seeds. This product has the same constituents as the Saw palmetto, a berry from the African palm, which is not available here or in Cuba, but is already known in alternative medical care to be effective in reducing the size of enlarged prostate.An extract of honey is being used in Cuba to treat leg ulcers. "Older folk here would be acquainted with this therapy because in the rural setting, the honey is used to speed up the healing process," Whyte said.
And since uterine fibroids are so prevalent among Jamaican women, the Cuban non-surgical treatment is of great interest to Whyte.
Fibroids are benign, non-cancerous tumors. Besides making pregnancy difficult, they have been blamed for many complications such as miscarriages and premature labour. For years many Jamaican women have been reluctant to do a myomectomy - an operation involving the removal of the fibroids but leaving he uterus intact and the hysterectomy, an operation which involves the removal of the entire uterus - for fear of complications resulting from excessive bleeding.
Whyte says the application of acupuncture techniques along with the insertion of catgut over a period of time could result in the reduction in the size of the growths, but he admits that they would not disappear. (END/IPS/et/cb/99)
Origin: Rome/TRADE/HEALTH-JAMAICA/ ----
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Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
March 8, 1999/No. 25
HAVANA.- Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchel is in Havana at the invitation of Cuban President Fidel Castro. Both leaders will revise bilateral agreements signed in April, 1998. This the second time that Mitchell has visited the island. The newly reelected Prime Minister is accompanied byGrenadian Public Health Minister Dr. Clarice Modeste-Curwenand other representatives from the government and private sector.
PRESS RELEASES 3 March
Havana.- President of the council for the management of Indian Affairs, victor Hugo Cardenas, said Cuban medical attention in Central American, following the devastation caused by hurricane Mitch was one of the largest contribution to Latin America. I am glad Cuba Is among the countries that has been helping the hurricane victims, Cardenas told Prensa Latina. The visitor arrived in Havana last Weekend and immediately met cuban minister for foreign investment and Economic cooperation,Ibrahim Ferradaz, and deputy minister Raul Taladrid.
NEWS from Cuba Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
March 1, 1999/No. 22
Havana-- Cuban First Vice President Raul Castro has welcomed the first group of Nicaraguan students that will study medicine on the island. Speaking with journalists upon their arrival, the Nicaraguan students said that it is a dream for them to be able to study medicine and expressed their gratitude to the Cuban government of allowing them to study on the island. It is estimated that over 5000 youths will graduate as doctors over the next ten years on the island. Once they graduate, the young people will return home and offer their services -- mainly in the rural areas of the Central American nations . Meanwhile, the first group of Guatemalan students has arrived on the island to study medicine, as part of a bilateral agreement signed last year between the governments of both countries.
February
February 28, 1999 Madrid.- The spanish group solidarity for development and peace ( Sodepaz) will contribute about US$ 1.3 million to cooperation with Cuba. Sodepaz president Francisco Calderon said the funds will be Used to continue projects started last year. In 1998, the Organization collected US$ 1.2 million to finance projects in sectors such as health, agriculture, urban development and power generation. The organization has established cooperation links with several Municipalities, the association of small farmers, the red cross, the Center for studies on Africa and the middle east and the universities Of Havana, Santa Clara and Oriente.
Havana.- The director of the Carlos III Spanish institute, dr. Jose Gutierrez, voiced his interest in identifying common interests in the Field of medical research and making suggestions to the European Union's 5th program. Gutierrez and his delegation will stay in Cuba For a week. Their aim is to establish cooperation between different Cuban research centers and the Madrid institute. They will explore Ways to exchange information and identify projects to be presented at The EU. 5th framework program, which contribute funds for scientific Research.
Blockade Shackling the Scientific Community "
Copyright GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION. La Havana. Cuba
Total or partial reproduction of the articles in this Website is authorized,
as long as the source of the copyright is added
"The blockade is shackling the scientific community"Says Dr.
Julio García Oliveras, first vice president of the Economic Society
of Friends of the Country The country's longest- standing NGO is being
revitalized and is adapting its work to current circumstances.
BY LILLIAM RIERA (Granma International staff writer)
The U.S. blockade is obstructing Cuba's participation in scientific events in that country and viceversa, complicating the receipt of scientific and technological publications and making it difficult for international agencies - including non-governmental organizations - to grant Cuba credits for efforts in that sphere, as well as blocking supplies of equipment and medicines.
"I say yes, but mean no!" Granma International
The United States acts like the good neighbor, but its real nature is quite the opposite * In practice, current legislation obstructs the sale of medicines to the island.
BY MARELYS VALENCIA ALMEIDA (Granma International staff writer)
WASHINGTON is reaffirming its traditional stance on Cuba at a moment when most of the world was expecting something different. Its simulations are likewise continuing. Almost one year ago, the U.S.government publicly announced that Cuba could acquire medicines patented in its territory. Today it's clear that that measure was mere lip service. To date, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health-Minister Carlos Dotres has received no formal indication to the contrary, despite the supposed relaxation of the blockade trumpeted by the Clinton administration. Health Minister Carlos Dotres states that, out of ten U.S. pharmaceutical companies approached for the purchase of medicines and equipment, five have failed to respond, and the others have replied using similar phrases: " I have bad news ... they're asking us to fill in all these requirement forms, who are the persons in need of the medicines, for what reason, etc., etc., ...."
"The operation is non-viable. It would be so costly for these enterprises to try to comply with all those requirements, to investigate where every product acquired by us ends up, and then to find the nonexistent trade, banking and transportation mechanisms between both countries, that such deals are virtually impossible," Dotres stated.
"Those conditions are unacceptable," he explained, "given that, in Cuba, medical care is free of charge, universal and equitable; the Cuban state invests 2.5 million dollars in insulin alone, and all medicines are prescribed to patients without distinction of ethnic origin, gender or ideological orientation."
It would be naive to analyze the reach of the U.S. economic blockade on the basis of obvious situations like the story of the ten pharmaceutical companies. This case serves as an example with regard to world opinion. The most apparent manifestation of the so-called embargo is that Cuba has been forced to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars extra to transport products from Europe or Asia, since it is unable to do so from the United States. But the blockade reaches further: given its noticeable impact on the Cuban macroeconomy, how could the state-subsidized public health system escape the storm? The answer to that is more than obvious.
Pharmaceutical products from the United States are appreciated by Cuba, although the island can never get access to them. Minister Dotres acknowledged that a close and very good market exists in that country for the purchase of medicines, equipment and diagnostic material. Neither can Cuban-patented vaccines and medicines reach the United States. A group of representatives from U.S. medical companies was due to have visited Havana in January to promote their products. The matter has remained in the terrain of good intentions. While the practice of restrictions continues, those showing an interest in making transactions with the island willhave to wait for the Greek calends.
Of the over 60 billion dollars that the blockade has cost Cuba, 1.2 billion belong to the public health sphere, in the last eight years alone. Washington is not concerned over the social burden of its policy.
In addition, the Torricelli Act, backed by the Cuban-American National Foundation, and supported by Clinton when he was a presidential candidate, prohibits U.S. subsidiaries from trading with Cuba.That piece of legislation, subsequently confirmed by the Helms- Burton Act, has reduced even more drastically the possibility of importing medicines.
Washington remains indifferent to the fact of Cuban suffering brought about by a lack of medicines.
NEWS from Cuba Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
February 26, 1999/No. 21
Havana-- The non-governmental Italian organization, International Committee for People's Development (CISP), has made a donation to improve the living conditions of the Alfredo Gomez Elderly Home in Havana. CISP has collaborated in the past with the European Union's Department for Humanitarian Aid on a project to aid the Cuban people. According to sources from the Cuban Health Ministry, it is estimated that the European Union donates more than 15 million dollars a year to help finance a global plan of humanitarian aid to the island. The plan -- which includes food, medicine and other important materials-- not only benefits the elderly, but the entire population
February 24, 1999
Source: Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
Havana.- Three hundred and forty Nicaraguan students, selected to study medicine in Cuba, will travel to the island on Saturday. All of the students come from Nicaragua's ruralareas and have promised to return to those areas after they graduate as doctors. The scholarships were offered by the Cuban government last December and are part of a program that includes Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador -- designed to aid the victims of Hurricane Mitch.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1999
PRESS RELEASE NO 59 MINREX HAVANA,
HAVANA.- A NEW COLLABORATIVE BRIGADE, COMPRISING OF 32 DOCTORS,NURSES AND TECHNICIANS TRAVELLED TO HAITI IN ORDER TO CONTINUE OFFERING MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TO THE HAITIAN PEOPLE, INFORMED A LOCAL RADIO STATION. DR. ENRIQUE COMENDEIRO, DIRECTOR OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS FROM THE CUBAN MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH STATED THAT THIS WILL BE THE NINTH GROUP TO WORK IN HAITI, BRINGING THE TOTAL TO MORE THAN 300 CUBAN EXPERTS. THESE ARE MAINLY SPECIALISTS IN GENERAL MEDICINE.THERE ARE NOW OVER 700 CUBAN DOCTORS VOLUNTEERING IN HAITI,HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, GUATEMALA AND COLOMBIA, THE COUNTRIES MOST AFFECTED BY HURRICANE MITCH. THE SPECIALISTS HAVE BEEN WORKING IN REMOTE AREAS WHERE INSUFFICIENT OR NO MEDICAL ASSISTANCE IS OFFERED.
February 22, 1999/No. 19
Source: Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
Havana-- Cuba's Health Minister Carlos Dotres, has announced the creation of a special group in charge of controlling the illegal sale of medicine on the island. The new group,which will work in coordination with the police and the Justice Ministry, has its main purpose to stop the underground sale of medicine. The Cuban Health official said that the group will oversee medicines in all the health institutions including, pharmacies, hospitals and clinics as well as controlling medical prescription. According to official statistics, last year Cuba registered an infant mortality rate of 7.1 per one thousand live births, the lowest in Latin America, performed over 800 thousand operations, increased outpatient surgery and mounted massive vaccination ampaigns. Primary medical attention received across the island was reflected in the reduction of emergency cases this past year. The Cuban Health Minister stressed that the island's health care system is based on prevention.
February 19, 1999
Source: Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
Havana-- An anti-polio vaccination campaign has begun across the island with the first phase covering children under three years of age. Polio was eradicated in Cuba when massive vaccination campaigns began in 1962. Today, all Cuban citizens under 53 years of age are protected against the disease. Before the Cuban Revolution, polio paralyzed and killed hundreds of people -- primarily children -- on the island. The World Health Organization's objective is to eradicate polio by the year 2000. In Latin America, the last reported case of polio was in Peru in 1994 and most of the cases are now registered in Africa. Cuba has eliminated four other diseases -- diphtheria in 1979, measles in 1993, and chicken pox and mumps in 1995. The National Vaccination Program currently protects the population against 13 preventable diseases
Friday, February 12, 1999
Source: RMF
HAVANA.- The President of the Principality of Asturias, Sergio Marques Fernandez, yesterday opened the Jose Antonio Echeverria pavilion at the Salvador Allende hospital,Havana. This was completely restored with Asturian support. The President arrived on Wednesday, accompanied by a large delegation of officials and investors from Asturias, one of Spain's 17 autonomous regions. Marques Fernandez promised to continue this type of collaboration in the future. Previously, the Asturian leader and a group of investors had met Ibrahim Ferradaz, Cuban Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic collaboration who discussed the current situation in Cuba concerning investments and economy. The visitors were interested in facilities for foreign currency in Cuba and real estate business.Marquez Fernandez also met Ricardo Alarcon, President of the National Parliament. He visited the Santovenia Home for the Elderly.
MANAGUA.- Nicaraguan deputy for the autonomous region of North Atlantic, Steadman Fagoth, highlighted the work being performed by Cuban doctors in the area and requested the same type of cooperation in the education sector. In a letter addressed to the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, Jose Antonio Alvarado and the Cuban Charge d'affaires Damian Arteaga, Fagoth noted that people from the Atlantic Coast are very grateful for the medical assistance given by Cuban doctors. He said they are pleased not only with the technical aid but with the kind manner of treating patients and methods of work . He said they would like to receive 455 elementary school teachers from Cuba, five for each of the 89 Indian communities in the Atlantic region .
February 12, 1999
Source: Cuban News from Havana/Cuban Interests Section
HAVANA-- A Cuban medical brigade will leave for Colombia on Saturday to aid victims of the earthquake that severely affected the western city of Armenia. The Cuban health professionals are responding to a request of the Colombian government to work in the areas affected by the recent earthquake that hit that South American nation. Cubacurrently has over 2000 health professionals in 57 countries -- with more than 200 offering their services to the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America and the Caribbean.
HAVANA-- Cuban United Nations representative Rafael Dausa says that in the area of social services, "what is just a dream for most of the world has been a reality in Cuba for the last 40 years." Speaking during the 37th Session of the UN's Social Development Commission, Dausa noted that the island dedicates an ever greater portion of its budget to social services. The recently passed 1999 budget, he explained, earmarks 39 percent of the island's total expenditures for education and health -- 3.6 percent more than the year before. Cuban UN Ambassador Rafael Dausa said that Cuba has the highest per capita of teachers in the world and, in health care, the island is in the vanguard of Latin America with indicators better than many developed countries with greater resources. Payments to pensioners, said the Cuban official, amount to 4.3 percent of the budget.
February 10, 1999
HAVANA.- Cuban President Fidel Castro, and Belizean Prime Minister,
Said Musa, signed cooperation agreements concerning education, tourism,
construction and sports last night, reinforcing bilateral relations. The
Belizean delegation and the Cuban Ministers involved attended the signing
held at the Palco Hotel, Havana. Cordel Hayde, Belizean Education Minister,
said that this was much more than expected and he was pleased by the
65 scholarships granted by the Cuban authorities for Belizean students,
including 15 for medical training. Said Musa and his delegation will
return to Belize today.
HAVANA.- Belizean Prime Minister, Said Musa, told press he was very satisfied by the outcome of his visit to Cuba. He considered the visit as warm, friendly and positive. He said that all CARICOM countries and Belize are willing to receive Cuba into the Organization. "When I return home I will tell my people that problems are not important, because everything is possible when the people are motivated, as proved by the Cuban example", said Said Musa.
February 8, 1999
Source: CUBAN INTERESTS SECTION
Ciego de Avila-- The International Orbis Project as ended a visit to the central province of Ciego de Avila after performing surgery on more than 50 people and training over 360 different specialists. The team of ophthalmologists, nurses, engineers and other experts from 13 countries trained Cuban specialists on the latest scientific and technological advances related to eye ailments. Of the over 300 patients in the central region of the island examined for glaucoma and other ailments, 32 adults and 22 children were treated with laser therapy. In this third visit by the non-governmental Orbis Project, its personnel made an important donation worth more than 50,000 dollars, including medicines, surgical instruments and videos of surgical procedures.
Havana-- The Deputy Regional Director of UNICEF's office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Cecilio Adorna, said that Cuba is an example of a country with few economic resources which can still guarantee free education and health care. During a news conference at Havana's International Convention Center, the official of the United Nations Children's Fund said that it is not important how much you invest, but how the amount earmarked for social spending is used. He pointed out that there are countries where the results do not justify the investment. The deputy regional director for UNICEF's Latin American and Caribbean office -- in Cuba for the International Conference Pedagogy '99 taking place in Havana -- pointed out that the conference is an important contribution of the Cuban people to Latin America, education and regional integration as well as UNICEF's fight in defense of children. The UN official stressed that to prioritize education means to invest in the future, defend human rights, assure scientific-technical advances and economic development to guarantee a happy childhood for the men and women of tomorrow.
Havana-- Specialists from the International ORBIS Project said they are very impressed with the preparation and knowledge of ophthalmologists from Cuba's central province of Ciego de Avila where the non-governmental organization is currently working. The head of the ORBIS mission, Roberto Whitty, and Cuban ophthalmologists from Ciego de Avila agreed that foreign and Cuban specialists have mutually benefited from the exchange of ideas. ORBIS physicians have treated patients with glaucoma and other eye ailments, although their main objective is to train doctors, nurses and other specialists in the field.
January
January 25, 1999
Source : Cuban Interest Section
Havana-- Cuba is among the countries with the least number of AIDS patients in the world, according to the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations, Ariel Francais. According to a report issued by the United Nations, 11 people contract the HIV virus each minute throughout the world -- a total of 662 every hour. The UN resident coordinator added that Cuba is one of the nations least affected by the deadly disease, although he warned that the opening to tourism is a key factor to take into consideration. He stressed the United Nation's interest in maintaining its support and contributing to the control of AIDS in the country. Since the beginning of Cuba's AIDS prevention program in 1986 until December 1998, 2122 people have been registered as HIV positive; of that number, 800 have become ill and 572 have died as a result of the disease.
Havana-- Over 20,000 elderly people received social security benefits
during 1998 and, according to official plans for this year, all types of
assistance
to the elderly will be increased, despite the island's economic situation.
The Director of the Labor Ministry's Social Assistance Office, Santos Prieto,
stated that the island's elderly are included in a government plan that
invests over 50 million pesos each year to help single mothers and orphans.
HAVANA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1999
PRESS RELEASE NO. 113
GUATEMALA.- Guatemalan university leaders requested the San Carlos University to award Cuban President Fidel Castro an honorary degree for his contributions to education. Francisco Lopez, of the Guatemalan Association of University Students (AEU), told the press the initiative responds to the good academic performance of the Cuban students and the help Cuban doctors have given to Guatemala in the aftermath of hurricane Mitch.
HAVANA.- Cuba and St. Kitts and Nevis will hold the first mutual joint commission, discussing mutual economic and technical cooperation in 11 sectors, including health, education, sports and agriculture. Officials from both countries met in St. Kitts and Nevis. Prime Minister Dr.Denzil L.Douglas chaired the meetings. The joint commission was set up in 1998 after the heads of state from both countries signed an agreement in Havana during Douglas' visit to Cuba.
HAVANA.- The organizing committee of the 9th International Medical Technology Fair "Health for All" held in Havana awarded gold medals to 38 of the 146 products on display. Seven of gold medal winners are manufactured in Cuba, including multi-channel digital electrocardiograph CARDIOCID-BS, manufactured by CombioMed.
HAVANA.- The Cuban firm MEDICUBA has confirmed its position as the nation's leading medicine exporting company, with a high pharmaceutical production in 14 plants. Over 900 pharmaceutical products, including antibiotics, eye drops, capsules and natural products, are distributed and sold in over 20 countries: Argentina, China, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil and Colombia, among others."
January 20, 1999
Holguin-- Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres said that the island is proud of its trained health professionals, capable of enormous sacrifices for humanity. Dotres pointed to one example of their selfless work: the Cuban medical brigades that are currently offering their services in Central America and the Caribbean. During an exchange with professors and medical students in the eastern province of Holguin, Dotres added that the country is trying to arrange the technical conditions necessary to improve the health sector. The Cuban health official said that many letters and messages of gratitude have been received from the most humble sectors of Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti for the selfless assistance given by Cuban doctors to those nations affected by Hurricane Mitch.
Havana-- The discoverer of the AIDS virus, French doctor Luc Montagnier, said in Cuba that despite being controlled on the island, the disease could spread rapidly if strict education campaigns are not maintained. On Tuesday Montagnier ended a five-day visit to Cuba to exchange information with Cuban experts and to learn about the island's AIDS treatment programs. The French scientist, who isolated the AIDS virus in l983 and how is currently the president of the World Foundation for Research and Prevention of AIDS, told reporters in Havana that he has a very high opinion of AIDS research being done in Cuba. In related news, Cuban Health Minister Carlos Dotres announced that the French doctor will collaborate with the island in obtaining a vaccine against AIDS.
Havana-- Some 630 Cuban doctors, nurses and technicians are currently volunteering their services in the most remote and poor areas of Central America and Haiti. According to Cuban health officials, that number will go up to 880 by the end of this month. Health Ministry official Alfredo Portero told journalists in Havana that the number of Cuban medical personnel working in Central America and Haiti could go as high as 2000 if that many are requested.
January 11, 1999
Source: Cuban Interests Section
Havana-- Cuban Health Ministry official Alfredo Potero told Radio Havana Cuba that the fifth medical brigade, which includes 40 health professionals, has arrived in Haiti to work in the country's rural areas. There are currently 200 Cuban health personnel offering their services in Haiti. A sixth Cuban medical brigade is scheduled to leave for that Caribbean nation next Sunday. Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa published an article entitled "Population Pleased with Cuban Medical Personnel," outlining the medical brigades' services to the victims of Hurricane Mitch.
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