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CSU 5/2009: TWO ON HEALTH IN CUBA

Friday, 23rd of January 2009 Print
CSU 5/2009: TWO ON HEALTH IN CUBA
  
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, which saw the regime of Fulgencio Batista overthrown by Fidel Castro.
  
Cuba boasts life expectancy and infant mortality to rival that of such countries as the US and Canada, at a fraction of the incomes and expenditure levels of most industrialized countries. Its public health accomplishments (see list at the foot of this update) are remarkable. Still, any discussion of Cuba stirs passions among the partisans and opponents of Fidel and Raul Castro.
  
In these two articles, the authors look at the Cuban health system through the numbers.
  
From the abstract in Cooper et al.:
 
'The poorer countries of the world continue to struggle with an enormous health burden from diseases that we have long had the capacity to eliminate. Similarly, the health systems of some countries, rich and poor alike, are fragmented and inefficient, leaving many population groups underserved and often without health care access entirely. Cuba represents an important alternative example where modest infrastructure investments combined with a well-developed public health strategy have generated health status measures comparable with those of industrialized countries. Areas of success include control of infectious diseases, reduction in infant mortality, establishment of a research and biotechnology industry, and progress in control of chronic diseases, among others. If the Cuban experience were generalized to other poor and middle-income countries human health would be transformed. Given current political alignments, however, the major public health advances in Cuba, and the underlying strategy that has guided its health gains, have been systematically ignored. Scientists make claims to objectivity and empiricism that are often used to support an argument that they make unique contributions to social welfare. To justify those claims in the arena of international health, an open discussion should take place on the potential lessons to be learned from the Cuban experience. '
  
Full text:
  
Cooper et al., http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/35/4/817
  
Rodriguez et al., http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/93/11/991
 
Cuba appears several times in the report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, full text at http://www.who.int/social_determinants/final_report/en/index.html
  
Good reading.
  
BD
  
  
Indicators of Cuba's accomplishments in public health
 
  • First country to eliminate polio—1962
  • First country to eliminate measles—1996
  • Lowest AIDS rate in the Americas
  • Most effective dengue control programme in the Americas
  • Comprehensive health care; 1 physician per 120–160 families
  • Highest rates of treatment and control of hypertension in the world
  • Reduction in cardiovascular mortality rate by 45%
  • Crude infant mortality rate of 5.8 per 1000
  • Development and implementation of a 'comprehensive health plan for the Americas'
  • Free medical education for students from Africa and Latin America
  • Support of 34 000 health professionals in 52 poor countries
  • Creation of a national biomedical internet grid (INFOMED)
  • Indigenous biotechnology sector; producing the first human polysaccharide vaccine

 

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Tuesday, 17th of March 2020

Monday, 17th of February 2020

Tuesday, 11th of February 2020

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www.measlesinitiative.org
www.technet21.org
www.polioeradication.org
www.globalhealthlearning.org
www.who.int/bulletin
allianceformalariaprevention.com
www.malariaworld.org
http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/