Cuba celebrates World Health Day by sharing its achievements

Havana, April 7 (RHC) Cuba celebrates World Health Day this Friday by sharing its achievements internationally, carrying a message of altruism, solidarity and humanism.

Vice Minister of Public Health Carilda Peña specified that these achievements go beyond national borders, since there is an important group of doctors, nurses and other experts in various nations who have provided their services. She recalled that during the toughest stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuba sent 53 brigades abroad that covered a total of 42 countries.

Cuba has a free, accessible, universal health system that does not discriminate race or creed, and covers the entire national territory through levels of care ranging from ministerial to primary.

Currently, Peña explained, the largest of the Antilles has a total of 450 polyclinics, and more than 11,000 family doctor and nurse offices.

The Antillean nation exhibits "a strengthened immunization program with 11 vaccines, eight of which are nationally produced and allowed the control of 13 diseases, some against serious forms, others already eradicated or controlled."

Peña pointed out that Cuba has 13 Medical Sciences faculties that train more than 10,000 professionals each year, and some 15,000 technologists.

Several care programs are in force, among them, the control of non-communicable diseases and the risk factors that generate them. Bearing in mind that Cuba is a tropical country, great attention is paid to communicable diseases, including those caused by vectors, such as malaria.

The largest of the Antilles was the first country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of congenital syphilis and HIV, a condition achieved since 2015, and is maintained to this day.

The vice minister regretted the damage caused by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the sector, depriving it of medical instruments, expendable material, supplies, drugs and other resources necessary for health care, while highlighting the support of the industry national pharmaceutical to the health system. (Source: Prensa Latina)