Government of Cuba ratifies willingness to put its experiences at the service of PAHO

Havana, Sept 25 (RHC) The Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, ratified this Monday the country's willingness to put its experiences and human resources at the disposal of the Pan American Health Organization -PAHO.

This was stated by Portal when speaking this Monday at the 60th session of the Directing Council of PAHO and the 75th of the Regional Committee of the World Health Organization for the Americas, which is taking place in the capital of the United States.

He highlighted that the Cuban National Health System follows a path of solidarity and cooperation that has made it possible during the last 60 years for more than 605 thousand Cuban collaborators to have provided medical care in 165 nations.

In his speech he stated that Public Health in Cuba is not the privilege of a few, it is a right of all people and it is the responsibility of the State to guarantee access, freeness and quality of services.

The minister explained that on these bases, which support the work of the National Health System, Cuba finds the greatest strengths to successfully face the complex scenario that COVID-19 brought with it.

Among many other elements, this was also possible due to the health management, intersectoral work and the past development of science that allowed the country to create its own vaccines and carry out an unprecedented national vaccination campaign.

Portal stated that the years of the pandemic were difficult, in which Cuba also faced a never-before-seen intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States Government, and the consequences that the arbitrary inclusion of the Antillean island brought with it. on the unilateral list of states supposedly sponsoring terrorism.

On the other hand, he regretted that, although the world has kept the COVID-19 pandemic at bay, it has not been able to do so with the devastating effects left by the virus.

In that context, he noted that the asymmetries and inequities in medical care are greater and the principle of “health for all” is becoming increasingly distant for various nations on the planet. (Source: PL)