Cuba's Development (Amazing medical progress)

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba's Development
by Salim Lamrani
May 28, 2005

Translated by Diana Barahona

Occasional miracles are achieved as a result of the close relations between Cuba and Venezuela, as numerous people can attest. Since June 2004, 20,000 Venezuelan citizens who had lost their sight to cataracts and other eye diseases, some of them decades ago, had their vision restored thanks to the prodigies of the Cuban revolution and its incomparable health system.1 But the international press has remained silent about the medical services performed by Cuban specialists, evidently because it is too busy covering the now-ideological subject of “human rights violations.”

Venezuelan patients who hadn't had access to medical care in their country for many years have become a priority for the government of Hugo Chávez, which decided to pay particular attention to the dispossessed. They were able to receive free operations in Cuba by virtue of the humanitarian and internationalist policies in place since 1959.

Cuba plans to extend this service to the rest of the nations of Latin America, where close to 4 million indigents suffer from eye diseases. By the end of 2005, close to 100,000 afflicted Latin Americans will benefit from the expertise of the 600 ophthalmic surgeons on the Caribbean island. No other country in the world has launched such an important humanitarian program to alleviate the misfortunes which devastate the American hemisphere.2
(snip)

During a meeting in Havana about the fight against AIDS in March 2005, the United Nations and Harvard University had words of praise for the Cuban health system. The Cuban model of AIDS prevention and treatment is considered to be one of the most efficient in the world by specialists from the United Nations Development Program, Harvard Medical School and the Pan American Health Organization. UN representative Bruno Moro emphasized the importance of the meeting in Cuba, a country where research on the illness has reached a very advanced level.4
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=60&ItemID=7962

[firefox]

1. A very uplifting and informative article

The article portrays the efforts of a small country to bring medical care and education to its neighbors. It makes you wonder what the world would be like if the US had promoted literacy and medical care instead of leading the arms race and exploiting the resources of the world by manipulating governments across the globe.

The last paragraph is worthy of reproduction/amplification- Developed countries in search of fat profits plunder the riches of the Third World, drain them of educated people, and support the local elites who defend their interests. At the same time, they have the indecency to give lectures about democracy to countries that refuse to give in. Cuba on its part prefers to give a hand to the needy and continue on its path toward the construction of a more just society.

[getmeouttahere]

2. USA could do that, too, if....

we had our priorities in order.

www.handsoffvenezuela.org

[Payback Time]

4. If Cuba has such an advanced medical system...

...how come my friends in Miami have to send medicine to their relatives? It cannot all be because of the embargo.

[Divernan]

6. Gee,could it be the high prices of US pharma companies?

Or the games they play to slightly change the composition of the coating of their biggest money making drugs to extend their patents and block the production of low cost generics? It may be a matter of charity, also, since nearly all drugs are available world wide on the net.

[Judi Lynn]

7. It would be helpful if you took time to become aware of the facts.

"Denial of Food and Medicine:
The Impact Of The U.S. Embargo
On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba"
-An Executive Summary-
American Association for World Health Report
Summary of Findings
March 1997

After a year-long investigation, the American Association for World Health has determined that the U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As documented by the attached report, it is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba. For several decades the U.S. embargo has imposed significant financial burdens on the Cuban health care system. But since 1992 the number of unmet medical needs patients going without essential drugs or doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment-has sharply accelerated. This trend is directly linked to the fact that in 1992 the U.S. trade embargo-one of the most stringent embargoes of its kind, prohibiting the sale of food and sharply restricting the sale of medicines and medical equipment-was further tightened by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens. Cuba still has an infant mortality rate half that of the city of Washington, D.C.. Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system. The crisis has been compounded by the country's generally weak economic resources and by the loss of trade with the Soviet bloc.

Recently four factors have dangerously exacerbated the human effects of this 37-year-old trade embargo. All four factors stem from little-understood provisions of the U.S. Congress' 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (CDA):

1. A Ban on Subsidiary Trade: Beginning in 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban has severely constrained Cuba's ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. Moreover, recent corporate buyouts and mergers between major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have further reduced the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba.
   
2. Licensing Under the Cuban Democracy Act: The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed in principle to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons to mitigate the embargo's impact on health care delivery. In practice, according to U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so arduous as to have had the opposite effect. As implemented, the licensing provisions actively discourage any medical commerce. The number of such licenses granted-or even applied for since 1992-is minuscule. Numerous licenses for medical equipment and medicines have been denied on the grounds that these exports "would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."
   
3. Shipping Since 1992:The embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after delivering cargo to Cuba. This provision has strongly discouraged shippers from delivering medical equipment to Cuba. Consequently shipping costs have risen dramatically and further constricted the flow of food, medicines, medical supplies and even gasoline for ambulances. From 1993 to 1996, Cuban companies spent an additional $8.7 million on shipping medical imports from Asia, Europe and South America rather than from the neighboring United States.
   
4. Humanitarian Aid: Charity is an inadequate alternative to free trade in medicines, medical supplies and food. Donations from U.S. non-governmental organizations and international agencies do not begin to compensate for the hardships inflicted by the embargo on the Cuban public health system. In any case, delays in licensing and other restrictions have severely discouraged charitable contributions from the U.S.

(snip/...)

http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html

[getmeouttahere]

3. Bravo, Firefox!

Excellent summation of the crime of unfettered capitalism

[Divernan]

5. The long lasting legacy of physician Che Guevarra.

If you haven't seen the film Motorcycle Diaries about the cross continent motorcycle trip Guevarra made after medical school, and how his exposure to the medical problems of the poor influenced his political actions, you have missed an inspiring film.

[Judi Lynn]

8. You're right. It's great. n/t

[libpunkmom]

9. YES!! Not to mention it really seems that the

co-operation and the "pacts" that are being made between Chavez and Castro could possibly be leading to Che's dream and goal of a United Latin America!!!