International leaders from healthcare sectors in over 80 countries were welcomed to Cuba, April 23-27, for “Cuba Salud 2018” the country’s third International Health Convention. This event also included Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Adhanom tweeted, “Visiting Cuba reminds me that #HealthForAll is not a dream for the future, it’s not just an aspiration; it’s a reality now. Cuba is an example for the world.”
#HealthForAll a Reality Now?
While countries like the United States continue to debate the merits of universal and free healthcare for all, since the triumph of the Cuban socialist revolution in 1959, Cuba has made people’s health a top priority. Even though Cuba remains a so-called “third world” country, the success of their revolutionary healthcare model is evident. Cuba’s health indicators are some of the best in Latin America and the Caribbean, often even surpassing Cuba’s so-called “first-world” neighbours to the north, the U.S. and Canada. For example, in the case of infant mortality, one of the most important indicators of human development, Cuba has lower numbers than the United States or Canada. Another example is the ratio of doctors and healthcare professionals to the population. According to the WHO, Cuba has the highest ratio of skilled health professionals to the population in the Americas, with 155 skilled professionals to 10 000 people. Canada sits at 119.5 professionals and the U.S. at 117.8 professionals per 10 000 people. When one looks at numbers of physicians, rather than just healthcare professionals, according to the CIA World Factbook, Cuba is soundly ahead with 75.2 physicians per 10 000 people, while Canada sits at 25.4 physicians and the U.S. at 25.7 physicians both per 10 000 people.
Some of the other excellent developments Cuba has been recognized for by the World Health Organization include:
>> Since 2005, Cuba’s “Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade” (HRIMB) has travelled to 21 countries to help more than 3.5 million people affected by emergency disasters and epidemics, saving an estimated 80,000 lives. The
HRIMB was awarded the pretigious Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health from the WHO in 2017.
>> Cuba’s vaccination campaigns have led to it being the first country in the region to eliminate polio.
>> In 2017 for the 10th consecutive year, Cuba has an infant mortality rate below six per 1,000 live births, and in 2017 closed with 4.4, the lowest rate in the Americas, including that of the United States (5.8) and Canada (4.5). (CIA World Factbook)
>> Life expectancy of Cubans at birth is almost 80 years, one of the highest in the Americas
Vaccination Week in the Americas
Before the opening of “Cuba Salud 2018”, international representatives inaugurated the 2018 Vaccination Week of the Americas in Cuba. The PAHO website explains why Cuba was chosen to host this year’s event. “Cuba was chosen to host the regional launch of the campaign because of the great strides the country has made in vaccine development and in eliminating vaccine-preventable diseases including polio, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, congenital rubella syndrome, whooping cough and mums.”
Jose Angel Portal Miranda, Cuba’s Deputy Health Minister, added that in Cuba, “vaccination is available to everyone, free of charge, and can be accessed from primary health care providers. As a result, vaccination coverage in Cuba for all vaccines currently stands at 98 percent, resulting in high population immunity.”
Healthcare vs. Blockade
Despite this success, an ongoing challenge for Cuba remains the U.S. blockade on Cuba. According to Cuba’s Granma International, “the accumulated financial losses to the Cuban Public Health sector currently stand at around 2.5 billion dollars since the blockade was first imposed in 1960.” While many believed that the reestablishment of formal diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States would mean a gradual end to the unjust blockade, it has been reinforced under U.S. President Trump.
While Cuba claims $2.5 billion worth of financial damage to its healthcare sector it is impossible to estimate the accurate cost of the blockade on Cuba’s healthcare system, because the price is not only financial, it is human. The blockade forbids Cuba from purchasing certain medicines and medical supplies from the U.S. Because many patents are held in the United States, often Cuba is barred from buying medicines from companies who may be located elsewhere, but are closely linked to pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. Also, medical equipment that has over 10% of its components made in the U.S. is off-limits to Cuba because of the U.S. blockade. International scientific exchanges and collaboration are also a challenge. The blockade also means travel limitations for Americans who want to go to Cuba and Cubans who want to go to the U.S. This restricts the scientific community’s ability to share and learn from each other.
If the blockade is so harsh, how is Cuba able to do so much? Cuban creativity helps. The government has invested to what Cuba calls, ‘green medicine,’ since 1996, when the Ministry of Health developed a program to integrate natural
medicine techniques into the mainstream healthcare system in Cuba. Green medicine can include herbal remedies, eastern or Asian natural cures, and other plant-based medicines which are now being grown, researched, and prescribed across the island. Across the island, technology is also heavily integrated into Cuba’s healthcare system, medical professionals are very careful to take care of their machines and often come up with imaginative solutions for spare parts when things break down. Cuba’s health initiatives are also very grassroots, with doctors who live and work in specific neighbourhoods, so they know their patients, their families and are integrated into the community. Integration facilitates community education, vaccination, and preventative care.
Cuba’s Revolutionary Internationalist Preventative Healthcare Model
Cuba’s revolutionary internationalist preventative healthcare model did not just appear out of thin air. It was designed, planned, and built by the visionary leadership of the Cuban government, which has created an accessible, universal, and free healthcare system for all people.
It is ‘revolutionary,’ because it is a socialist model, not a capitalist one, putting human need before corporate profit.
It is ‘internationalist’ because Cubans are not isolationist, they are using their high ratios of healthcare professionals to bring health to poor and working people around the globe.
It is ‘preventative’ because rather than waiting for people to get sick and paying hundreds of thousands to pharmaceutical companies to ‘cure’ people, Cuba believes in preventing illnesses through ongoing education and accessible local healthcare workers.
As human loving people around the globe, we have a responsibility to defend the people of Cuba against U.S. aggression and the unjust and immoral U.S. blockade on Cuba. We also have a responsibility to remind the various levels of government in our own countries, especially in the United States and Canada, that our healthcare system is not for sale!
Cuba reminds us that a broader and more accessible universal healthcare system is both possible and necessary. As the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted, “Cuba is an example for the world.”
Follow Tamara Hansen on Twitter: @THans01
Back to Article Listing
