Havana, September 16 (RHC)-- Granma newspaper reports that the National Center for Genetic Medicine reports that for three consecutive years the infant mortality rate from congenital defects has remained at 0.8 for each 1000 births, the lowest in the history of the country.

When the institution was founded in 2003, this indicator was at 1.7.

The reduction of the rate was attained through a program that covered between 95% and 99% of pregnant women and newly born infants, with the participation of provincial and municipal medical services, and through improvements in the diagnostic instruments, which were able to detect 40 infirmities of genetic origin in 2003. Today, more than 120 congenital defects can be detected.