President of Cuba receives executive director of UNAIDS

Havana, May 6 (RHC) Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel today received the executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Winnie Byanyima.

According to the X profile of the Presidency of Cuba, Díaz-Canel spoke at the Palace of the Revolution with the high representative of the United Nations and presented ideas about the Cuban Strategy to address this disease.

He also commented on the impact of the US blockade on the Cuban health system, which entails greater efforts for comprehensive care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The head of state expressed his confidence in South-South cooperation in a world where conflicts prevail, the gap between rich and poor grows, and access to medicine in general is highly politicized.

In this sense, he denounced the way of operating of transnational companies dedicated to the trade of medicines and medical treatments that are not interested in people's health, quite the opposite.

In dialogue with the presidential press, Byanyima recognized that Cuba is at the forefront in the fight against HIV/AIDS and recalled that it was the first country in the world to eliminate the transmission of the disease from mothers to their children.

Byanyima is an advocate for social justice and gender equality, and leads UN efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS will carry out a work agenda in Cuba that includes conversations with authorities from various spheres and visits to health and biopharmaceutical institutions. (Source: PL)