Medicine capitalist in Cuba.

There are double standards discriminatory and exploitative Cuban doctors and patients both for foreign patients.

By Dr. Eduardo Enrique Herrera Duran.*

For many in the world, in Cuba, medical care is free. But actually it is not so, and especially for tourists. People who visited the island and ill, have seen are required a hefty payment in foreign currency by the health services required.

Some foreigners complained that they have to pay for any services of this type that will deliver to them at a much higher price than in some of their countries, and with less quality. In addition, sometimes they are examined by several specialists unnecessarily, charged each query in order to increase the final amount.

As medical specialists, sometimes forwards us cases to assess as surgeons who had simply not are sent to our service. In my opinion, this happened for the effort to add an unnecessary specialist consultation and thus charged more.

An example of this occurred on February 14 of Calixto Garcia University Hospital at emergency room. A German patient who suffered several diarrhea ended envoy to be valued by the emergency surgery and therapy, most without this case required it, which was discussed by the medical team.

Hospitals such as the Cira García, Camilo Cienfuegos and the CIREN (Neurological Restoration Center), are those who receive largest number of foreigners. Others only have some rooms which cater to this type of patient, as it is the case of the Hospitals Pando Ferrer, Hnos Amejeiras and CITED (Ibero-American Centre for the Elderly), in the Calixto Garcia University Hospital.

Ambulances available in the Hospital “Cira Garcia". Author’s photo

Hospitals and rooms primarily responsible for the care of foreigners have better comfort. The equipment is superior and the staff working in them are familiar with provide a service that is not customary in health centers where are served our neighbors.

When tourists arrive to seek medical attention, are required to pay either cash or insurance cards. However, despite such outlay, the doctors who are in charge of care for them not benefiting from this gain. They receive the same salary as all other specialists (approximately the equivalent in pesos to about 60 to 70 dollars a month).

Thus, is the most profitable business for the Cuban State, forming a large number of professionals in the sector without investing much in it. The teachers who teach them usually win approximately 80 dollars a month.

Formed as low-cost physicians are sent to many countries for the so-called "medical collaborations". As a result, and unlike the worker who produces them, the Cuban State receives juicy profits.

This machine make money also joined the physicians from other countries who are studying on the island. Input, and only by registration for the specialty, pay 18 thousand dollars annually. This figure would represent a fortune to any Cuban, even being a teacher of the most qualified. Working in Cuba, could not meet this amount in a lifetime.

Cuba is a paradox for scholars of classical Marxism. For those who still believe in the myth of free medicine, "Socialist" model was transformed into a country where the capitalist health care method, applies more however wages which sustain it remain insufficiently low.

* Dr. Eduardo Herrera Duran is a physician specialist in Surgery. He lives in the city of Havana, Cuba and works at the University Hospital "Calixto García". He collaborates with the independent Cuban Press Agency, Hablemos Press, on health issues. Some of his articles appear in the Blog of Cuban Medicine.  (Microsoft translator)

Source: Hablemos Press

Cuban surgeons rented to Chile.

The Cuban regimen sells qualified health workforce and denied the right to do the same on their own.

By Dr. Eduardo Herrera. *

In the emergency at Department of surgery at the University Hospital "Calixto García", last December 18, informed medical specialists the chance to go to work in Chile for 3 months. The salary offer is thousand dollars a month, according to rinse off the head of the service, informed by the director of the Hospital.

This happens only a few weeks have restricted travel of physicians by announcement. According to the official note, it was a measure that was taken by necessity, since they caused a deficit in attention to the population. However, the official argument does not seem very relevant, especially if they are still devoting thousands of doctors to work in other countries, sent by the same nurture which prohibits such a decision when it is private.

With this measure, the national Government leaves clear how slavery way medical staff has. It offers Governments taking a figure much higher than that paid to the same doctors, even less to those who see a natural counterpart of the country that sent them.

So both Governments with the benefit that produce well-qualified professionals are preferred.

University Hospital "Calixto Garcia" La Habana,Cuba

The Cuban Government gets scandalous profits and the recipient Government indirect advantages in economic, or direct political. In the first case, due to the low wage that perceived labor for rent, pocketing nurture 75% of what you earn. And in the second case, because the cheap coming out to the recipient country improvements in the health service which would offer its citizens.

Different rulers are using this business with huge gains of the Cuban State to succeed in his political campaigns. And they do so without repairing what is subjected to these Cuban professionals in their own country of origin, receiving wages that do not pass 70 dollars a month. It is a figure that would not reach them to lead a life as any industry professional in another nation, even poorer.

Therefore, what the Cuban authorities are trying to prevent is the output of many physicians with personal contracts, by those who perceive much more fair wages. And probably achieve their objectives thanks to coercion imposed to its analogues.

Case, it is the reason that is, is abruptly reduced supply of free private contracting of Cuban specialists had been proposing in countries such as Angola, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile and some more.

Prices for the legalization of titles and notes by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX), as well as the passport and the passages are very high in relation to the salaries that are paid in our country. However, many still try to sell what little they possess in the family to make going out to work to another nation, in search of a decent remuneration.

A lot of doctors in Cuba are ready to be hired in countries where the human work we do is recognized and therefore will pay us fees that really meet our needs. The democratic countries  where reigns the justice independent of the State, should not make deals with modern slavers as the Cuban State. And medical schools or other organizations as the World Labor Organization (ILO online) should prevent to continue with the exploitation of their doctors.

*Dr. Eduardo Herrera Duran is a physician specialist in Surgery. He lives in the city of Havana, Cuba and works at the University Hospital "Calixto García". He collaborates with the Cuban Agency of independent press, Hablemos Press, on health issues. Some of his articles appear in the Blog of Cuban Medicine. (Microsoft translator)

Read in Spanish HERE

Abandonment and neglect in the health system in Cuba.

Health in Cuba: apart from the impressive achievements.

By Paulino Alfonso Estevez.

It is true that in comparison with African countries and many in Latin America and Asia, in terms of health, Cuba can show impressive achievements, which are presented by the propaganda of the regime as one of the greatest achievements of the revolution.

However, in public health in Cuba, beyond the impressive achievements, there are enough abandonment and neglect. Suffice it to recall that in January 2010, in the Psychiatric Hospital of Mazorra, died of hunger and cold in 26 patients.

The Castro regime, in Exchange for money and political purposes, diverted to other countries health care, to the detriment of the Cuban people.

Patients who died on the Psychiatric Hospital of malnutrition and cold.

Since 2002, only for medical services, the Cuban regime has received 120 000 000 $ of the Venezuelan Government.

It also receives annually 2 500 000 dollars on the part of other more than 30 Governments also staffed by Cuban doctors.

No country in the third world has received such amount of money for the export of human resources.

Despite this avalanche of money giving the exportation of medical and paramedical, the Cuban people live, as saying the Spanish, to two servings, of hunger and need.

A few years ago, as reported to the Communist Party by the then Minister of health, José Ramón Balaguer, in Havana there was 300 closed clinics because "their doctors were in Venezuela or other countries".In the other provinces had nearly 500 clinics closed.

For 20 years the regime not dealt with repair of clinics, polyclinics and hospitals. 5 years ago decided to undertake partial repairs (have only made an overhaul in the Hospital "Calixto García", in El Vedado).

Six years ago, a Prince of Saudi Arabia donated 30 million dollars for the reconstruction of the children's Hospital "Pedro Borras", Vedado. But it seems that this donation was used in another thing, because what was that children's hospital is now a heap of ruins. ( Microsoft translator)

Read in Spanish: AQUI

Source: Primavera digital.

Insufficient compensation, the high cost of living, and increased demand have also influenced the health care sector in Cuba.

Increase in medical tension – or in medical attention

By Dr. Eduardo Herrera Duran.*

News media inside and outside of Cuba highlight the functioning of the Island’s health care system. They consider it exemplary, and even compare with developed countries.

Many of my medical colleagues and I have been discussing the condition of medical care in recent years. The majority of us agree that it has been deteriorating for more than 20 years. Contrary to what the Cuban state communicates.

The lack of professional, technical and service personnel in the public health centers – something that militates against good care – is evident. At the wards that receive a great number of patients, often one can find only one nurse – even in intensive care units, where the ratio should be one nurse per patient. In general, each nurse is tending to two or three very gravely ill patients at a time.

Nor can we find nurse assistants, nor cleaning staff; in the best of cases, these are not sufficient to the task. All of which causes the hygiene in the various departments to not be what it should be in a center for treating the sick.

The number of physicians has been gradually diminishing because of their recruitment for the so-called “missions,” which generate juicy revenues for the government. All of which increases the number of patients for each doctor to see, which adversely impacts the quality of care.

To all this, let us add the shortages of necessary medications, supplies and equipment that we do not have on hand when we are treating patients. This affects not only the patients and their families, but also the public health personnel who find themselves unable to provide good service.

Insufficient compensation, the high cost of living, and increased demand in the country have also influenced the health care sector, which is among the most essential for maintaining the well-being of our citizens.

Unquestionably, these factors have influenced the sector’s deterioration. Officials from the Public Health Ministry, during their scheduled visits to the health care centers, see only what they want to see, and do not reflect the reality of what is occurring in their reports to the citizenry. They say that although there are fewer health care centers, medical care has increased in quality.

Referring to what the Public Health Minister said in the most recent meeting of the National Assembly of the People’s Power, one of the physicians, with whom I conversed, Dr. Dayte, said (with humor despite the adversity we face), “Possibly, when they refer to medical attention, there is some misunderstanding, and it is really medical tension that has increased.”

*Dr. Edward E. Herrera Duran. He is a physician, specialist in surgery, living in Cuba and works at the University General “Calixto Garcia” in Havana, Cuba. He writes articles about health to Hablemos Press Agency.

Source: Hablemos Press and Translating Cuba. Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Being a health professional in Cuba, a doubtful advantage.

Cuba Increases Control over Its Doctors

by Roberto Jesus Quinones.*

The exodus of Cuban health professional does not stop, and the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) apparently has decided to act to counter a phenomenon that is damaging domestic medical services but much more the country’s income.

A document attributed to the senior management of MINSAP, adopted in a meeting held in mid-March of this year, has been making the rounds in the e-mail of health professionals in which the sector’s new policy is expressed. This event was confirmed to CubaNet by an official from the Provincial Management of Public Health in Guantanamo, whose identity we do not reveal for obvious reasons.

The document has 18 instructions. The first three are focused on the re-organization of services and the re-location of professionals as a result of the staff review carried out last year.

The other 15 are directed to curbing the exodus of health professionals through private contracts or other avenues and steering the application of the measures in each case.

The document

One of the most controversial, instruction numbers 4 establishes that Cuban doctors in Angola must be relieved, but without increasing the collaboration with that country, until its authorities stop handing down measures that discourage the hiring of Cuban professional in private clinics or institutions.

Another measure, number 5, directs the withdrawal of the passport, in the airport itself, of professionals who later return from the completion of a mission.

Measures 6, 7 and 8 aim to get the private clinics of other countries to hire Cuban doctors through MINSAP, an agency that claims the right to review the professional’s individual contract, obviously so that the doctors pay the corresponding tax to the Cuban government and in no way receive all the money that is due them from the agreed upon wage.

Measure number 10 requires concluding the process of cancelling the diplomas of the 211 professionals who left service without authorization, and number 11 directs MINSAP’s vice-minister of International Relations to carry out a study of the existing rules in the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), as it relates to the migration of the sector’s professionals.

Punishing the “undisciplined”

Rule 12 considers it a serious breach for a health professional to not return to Cuba upon fulfillment of his mission abroad without good cause verified by MINSAP, and it requires final separation from the profession by those who engage in said conduct, with the subsequent withdrawal of the degree.

Meanwhile, Rule 13 orders the creation of records of disqualification for those professionals who violate the established procedures for leaving the country. If any of them repents and returns, Rule 14 directs that they cannot be re-located in their previous workplace but in an inferior status.

Another cage for the army of white coats

Rules 16 and 17 of the document are intended to promote meetings with ambassadors of the countries where Cuban health professionals travel, largely for the purpose of discouraging their being recruited to remain and practice in that country.

The heads of Cuban medical teams and ambassadors have received that same instruction. Besides interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, this shows one of the thus-far-discouraged facets of Cuban medical collaboration, which is none other than exerting pressure over the countries receiving these types of services to make them faithful to the regime’s policy, which is clearly established in instruction number 4 with respect to Angola.

Finally, number 18 establishes a monthly coordination between MINSAP and the Department of Identification, Migration and Foreign Affairs of the Interior Ministry so that it will report to MINSAP on the doctors who leave the country as well as those who have begun proceedings for that purpose, in order to take appropriate measures.

Being a health professional in Cuba, a doubtful advantage

The above measures show the doubtful advantage of being a health professional in Cuba, although the same could be said with respect to other professionals.

Determined to provide the country with qualified personnel, the government never concerned itself with steadily encouraging the efforts of the professionals themselves. That explains their massive exodus to foreign countries and other better paying jobs with the consequential social loss.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, renowned Cuban professionals have been subjected to a financial exploitation that not even the fiercest capitalist would have dared to impose. Paid miserable wages, many times they sign unfair contracts that the government offers for them to work abroad because it is the only chance they have of improving their housing or getting housing, or acquiring a car or having some savings for their retirement.

In doing so, at a sometimes irreversible familial cost, they damage their freedom and self-esteem in service to a government for which they are only a source of income that allows it to continue dominating the people.

*Roberto Jesús Quiñones Haces was born in the city of Cienfuegos September 20, 1957. He is a law graduate. In 1999 he was unjustly and illegally sentenced to eight years’ incarceration and since then has been prohibited from practicing as a lawyer. He received the Vitral Grand Prize in Poetry in 2001 with his book “Written from Jail” as well as Mention and Special Recognition from the Nosside International Juried Competition in Poetry in 2006 and 2008, respectively. His poems appear in the 1994 UNEAC Anthology, in the 2006 Nosside Competition Anthology and in the selection of ten-line stanzas “This Jail of Pure Air” published by Waldo Gonzalez in 2009.

Source: Translating Cuba. Translated by MLK 

Well, it is generally accepted that Cuba has one of the best medical doctors in the world. The country's health experts have a much broader role than simply catering for the local population, as the nation exported over 140,000 doctors to the poorest regions across the globe since 1963. Cuba is also home to the best and the largest medical institution with nearly 13,000 students from 124 countries. Our Maimuna Jallow looked at the role the Cuban experts play in enriching country's economy in this report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQj_IsxY5H4

Cuba’s Silence is Dangerous to Your Health

Sherri L. Porcelain*

After a century hiatus, cholera, malaria and dengue have returned to Cuba. This is no surprise since Cuba’s deteriorated water, sewage, sanitation and housing systems all create the ideal environment for rapid disease spread. Dengue, a mosquito borne viral disease, and cholera, a bacterial infection contracted by drinking water or eating food contaminated with a strain of cholera, present threats to both the local population and tourists visiting the island.

Luis Suarez Rosas, a physician with Cuba’s National School of Medicine, accurately captures the paradox of Cuban health care today in using the term epidemiologic silence to describe Cuba’s official position on disease outbreak information. Cuba is a unique case study because of its long history of highly trained infectious disease specialists as seen in the yellow fever response in the early 1900s, and the prominence of the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute founded in 1937. Yet, today, the policy to call dengue euphemistically as a febrile illness or cholera as a gastrointestinal illness represents an unethical national public health policy affecting individuals beyond their national borders. This choice to withhold information derails global public health goals to inform and protect travelers; it also encourages rumors and creates confusion. Suarez Rosas, using dengue as a recent example, explains how this artificial epidemiologic silence does not help patients, nor does it address the risk or the perception of the severity of the disease. Additionally, it does not respond to the culprit, the aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries the yellow fever virus.

While both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) provide health alerts and identify health problems, their information often relies upon the official reporting of information. However, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED), operating under the International Society for Infectious Disease, is an internet-based information system created in 1994 with the purpose of sharing emerging and re-emerging infectious disease information. ProMED mail welcomes all sources of information, including independent journalists who have reported outbreaks long before the Cuban government forced to make an official statement. ProMED continues to share information about the re-emergence of cholera in Cuba’s Manzanillo (Granma) Province in 2012 that spread through eastern provinces, and reached the western capital of Havana.

In June 2013, an independent journalist from Hablemos Press reported approximately 30 cases of malaria in Cuba. The Cuban government claimed these cases are imported by tourists or from returning residents that traveled to an endemic area. Imported cases of malaria are not new; however, the history of Cuba’s denials of other re-emerging diseases compels one to question the veracity of the government’s official report.

Malaria expert John Beier, Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, states that Cuba is receptive to malaria since the mosquito has not been eliminated. It is also important to acknowledge that local pocket of transmissions can exist through imported cases from other areas in the region, such as Hispaniola where malaria is known to exist. During rainy season, and when vector population increases, the risk of transmission increases as well. Still no official government report exists.

Sharing good epidemiologic evidence in a timely fashion is a reasonable expectation for global public health cooperation to be maintained. Promoting global health security begins with greater transparency on potential health threats. These are not state secrets as proposed during the 1980s and 1990s denial of Cuba’s dengue re-emergence, along with the incarceration of health professionals who released such data.

Cuba’s policy to withhold information on infectious disease threats for the purpose of protecting their health image, or their tourism industry is unacceptable in an era where rapid and frequent transport across borders occurs. International travelers and concerned citizens everywhere must realize that mosquitoes and microbes do not require their own passport stamp for entry into the United States, and the intrepid stowaways may arrive with their presence undetected.

Based upon what we know and don’t know-

We need to:

1.      Promote greater awareness about mosquito avoidance and cholera, dengue and malaria prevention for travelers to Cuba. While other countries may have higher reported cases, their risk is documented through transparency in their reporting. On June 27, 2013 the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba posted an alert message for U.S. citizens regarding road safety and traffic related deaths and injuries. This is an important health and safety message, so why not extend this to other public health issues such as dengue, malaria, and cholera?

2.      Become more proactive and use Rapid Diagnostic Kits (RDK) for early identification of diseases such as dengue and malaria. This could be especially important to Travel Medicine Clinics where licensed and trained health professionals have the ability to do accurate testing and patient histories. Dr. Kunjana Mavunda, Medical Director and Tropical Disease Specialist at International Travel Clinic in South Miami, Florida supports this approach. “I’ve been looking at these rapid diagnostic kits as part of the patient care and it is important that you get a good history of the patient and identify potential exposure risks.” She indicated that Cuba’s neglected infrastructure makes it ripe for potential disease spread.

3.      Generate a wider dialogue concerning Cuba’s epidemiologic silence. Notwithstanding the issues surrounding dengue, malaria and cholera, a bird flu spread remains a possibility. The 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus scare originated in South China and today the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), another coronavirus, lurks nearby. Will anyone hold Cuba accountable for failure to report early outbreaks? What about possible impact in South Florida?

Global health security depends upon the rigor of good science, the willingness of nations to uphold policies to protect both their citizens and visitors, and the timely reporting of potential health threats. A world that is forced to rely on rumors puts everyone at risk. Consequently, silence is dangerous to your health.

*Sherri Porcelain is Senior Lecturer in Global Public Health in World Affairs and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami.

The CTP can be contacted at P.O. Box 248174, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3010, Tel: 305-284-CUBA (2822), Fax: 305-284-4875, and by email at ctp.iccas@miami.edu. The CTP Website is accessible at http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu.

Foods and Cancer in Cuba.

Foods VS Cancer

By Roberto Quiñones Haces.*

Guantanamo, Cuba, (PD) since the end of May this year the Cuban press has published articles eulogistic in favor of the Government due to the fact that Cuba, along with other 16 countries, advance fulfilled the objective of halving the number of people sub nourished.

Mr. José Graziano Da Silva, FAO's director-general, congratulated the Cuban Government and was received on 3 may by the President of the Council of State, general of army Raúl Castro Ruz. Ms. Entharin Cousin, Executive Director of the world food program of the United Nations, and Mr. Theodor Friedrich, the FAO representative in Cuba, were also laudatory words for the Government.

Is true that in Cuba there are no famines that persist in several countries of the world, but it also is that the power of the Cuban has been falling steadily as and that many families eat poorly - sometimes just a cup of coffee - and make a single daily meal. The so-called monthly basic basket - the products sold by the State at "subsidized" by the ration book - prices has been reduced to seven pounds of rice, a tiny amount of beans or peas that barely reaches for two meals, a little oil, a package of five pounds of sugar, coffee, a packet of iodized salt every three months and a box of matches. Withdraws children the allocation of milk at the age of seven, from that age and up to fourteen receive two packs of milk powder. In the butcher's shop sold ten eggs per person, called hash with soy - meat compound only God knows what it is, presence so repugnant that until my dog refuses to eat it - and a small ration of chicken once a month. This lean provision of food is what the State guarantees to every Cuban. Obviously, those who have been more than fifty years in power never have had to suffer these food rigors.

I have already explained this to relate it to another story that appeared on page 2 of the newspaper Granma on Saturday, June 8. In it, signed by José A. de la Osa, reporting that cancer is now the leading cause of death in Cuba, moving to diseases of the heart and cerebrovascular. The funny thing is that the people who served from source, Dr. Idalia Cardero Quevedo, specialist of the Department of Disease not transmissible of the Directorate of epidemiology of the Ministry of public health (MINSAP), recognizes that the inadequate power is one of the causes of cancer but deflected abound in this aspect of the problem. That's where I'm going to stop me. I reiterate, Cubans eat daily but the issue lies in the quality of what we are eating because our diet is not varied and unique animal protein which we can purchase - at least in this area of the country - and at a high price, is pork. The vegetables must be present at our tables on a daily basis but their prices prevent so. Not to mention beef, disappeared from the kitchen of the majority of the people since 1990. To talk about what meat Turkey, rabbit and fish and seafood, so rare now in our food. Nothing is said in the article about the impact that has had on the increase in deaths by cancer the intensive use of fertilizers and chemicals in agriculture and the preservative chemicals in canned foods.

Another ridge of the issue is the amount of food experiments that have been performed with our people as if we were guinea pigs. The list is long, but I remember that before the mince with soy were retail cereal unpalatable, grain never before consumed in our country, meat pasta, croquettes bland, cold cuts with a composition of flour that goes beyond of the seventy per cent, refreshments of unidentifiable flavors, etc.

The case is not satiate the hunger but make it so that foods that consume the population are varied and healthy, something that is still an unattainable goal for the vast majority of the Cuban people, whether by low production and low variety of offer or because commodity prices are still so high that it is not possible to access a healthy and balanced diet. In my opinion, it is this, more than smoking and alcoholism, the main cause of the increase of cancer in our country.

*Roberto Jesus Quiñones is an attorney and lives in Guantanamo. Cuba.

Cuba: The riddle of the secret with cholera.

The riddle of the secret with cholera.

By Jaime Leygonier.

Havana, July 23. - The spread of the cholera epidemic in the country is kept in strict secrecy by the government and reported by the independent press whose reports which town of Cuba or Havana neighborhood recorded cases being left almost news, the news would be: Where there is no cholera in Cuba?

Doctors diagnose cholera are prohibited, they have to write in the certificate "gastrointestinal disease", less can the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) enact quarantines or inform local health international, because officially there is no cholera in Cuba.

In 2012, on TV a spokesman solemnly declared extinct MINSAP outbreak "gastrointestinal disease" in the area of eastern Cuba where the epidemic began, all the press reproduced the "Information Note" ministerial.

Since then spread across the island in winter and recovers lessened virulence by the summer heat and rain.

Dictatorship in the time of cholera modem operandi embraces her lying on her reality lies or deaths!

And as a black joke circulating this riddle: Where is the only place in Cuba where there never will be cholera, dengue fever and malaria....? In the Press.

A Different Model — Medical Care in Cuba — NEJM

A Different Model — Medical Care in Cuba — NEJM

En Cuba todas las personas tienen un médico de familia, los servicios de salud son absolutamente gratuitos, y es innecesaria autorización alguna para acceder a ellos, destaca un artículo divulgado en The New England Journal of Medicine.

El sistema de salud cubano se caracteriza por poseer muchos doctores, está muy organizado y su prioridad es la prevención, destaca el estudio "Cuidados médicos en Cuba, un modelo diferente", de Edward W. Campion, Editor Adjunto Superior y Editor Online, y Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D, jefe de redacción de la revista.

In Cuba people with HIV have the right to the best possible physical and mental health.

By Ignacio Estrada Cepero.

People affected by HIV/AIDS have the right to the highest possible level of physical health and mental alertness among other things “the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic illnesses” and “the creation of conditions that assure medical assistance and services to all in the event of illness”

In order to fulfill these obligations in the context of HIV, the Cuban State should guarantee the availability of information, education and adequate support with respect to HIV, including access to treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, to the means of prevention (for example condoms) and to voluntary tests for HIV with counseling prior to, and after the test in order that people may protect themselves and others from infection.

Cuba, like other nations, should guarantee a safe blood supply and the implementation of universal precautions to reduce transmission in settings such as hospitals, clinics, dental services or clinics that offer acupuncture services including the same that are outside an institutional setting.

Within these duties is also the assurance of access to treatments and adequate medicines, within the general public health policy, so that people living with HIV can live as long and as well as possible. People living with HIV should also have access to clinical trials and the ability to choose among all available drugs and therapies, including alternative therapies.

International support, in both public and private sectors, is essential for developing countries to have greater access to health care, treatment, drugs and equipment. In this context, countries are obliged to ensure that no drugs or other materials supplied are expired, and are also obliged to permit their safe supply avoiding shortages.

It’s possible that the state has to create special measures to insure all social groups, especially the most marginalized and among them given the issue of HIV/AIDS in Cuba it is valid to mention in this group the population of Cubans in prison living with HIV/AIDS, surpassing  700 inmates. They must have equal access to prevention services, care and treatment of HIV.

The obligations of all States with regards to Human Rights is to prevent discrimination and to guarantee medical care and services in case of illness, and to require them to ensure that no one is discriminated against in the environment of health care for their status with respect to HIV.

Photo: James Rexroad