Health care in Cuba

Health care in CubaCNN, September 2, 2009 – By Brooke Baldwin CNN's Brooke Baldwin explores how the health-care system in third-world Cuba is producing some world-class results. Arachu Castro, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of social medicine, is interviewed.http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/09/02/ldt.baldwin.healthcare.cuba.cnn?iref=24hours.

Event Archive: Results of ARV Therapy in Cuba [1]

Video Archive of Seminar given by Jorge Perez, MD, Director "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) Hospital, and Clinical Director of the Cuban AIDS Program on Wednesday, May 6 at the Harvard Initiative for Global Health as part of a HIGH Seminar Series. 

Editorial: U.S.-Cuban Scientific Relations

Reprinted from Science, October 17, 2008

by Sergio Jorge Pastrana and Michael T. Clegg

In a few years, the twooldest national academies of science in the world outside ofEurope--those of the United States and Cuba--will celebrate their 150thanniversaries. Yet despite the proximity of both nations and manycommon scientific interests, the U.S. embargo on exchanges with Cuba,which began in 1961 and is now based on the 1996 U.S. Helms-Burton Actand subsequent regulations, has largely blocked scientific exchange.It's time to establish a new scientific relationship, not only toaddress shared challenges in health, climate, agriculture, and energy,but also to start building a framework for expanded cooperation.

Restrictions on U.S.-Cuba scientific cooperation deprive both researchcommunities of opportunities that could benefit our societies, as wellas others in the hemisphere, particularly in the Caribbean. Cuba isscientifically proficient in disaster management and mitigation,vaccine production, and epidemiology. Cuban scientists could benefitfrom access to research facilities that are beyond the capabilities ofany developing country, and the U.S. scientific community could benefitfrom high-quality science being done in Cuba. For example, Cubatypically sits in the path of hurricanes bound for the U.S. mainlandthat create great destruction, as was the case with Hurricane Katrinaand again last month with Hurricane Ike. Cuban scientists and engineershave learned how to protect threatened populations and minimize damage.Despite the category 3 rating of Hurricane Ike when it struck Cuba,there was less loss of life after a 3-day pounding than that whichoccurred when it later struck Texas as a category 2 hurricane. Sharingknowledge in this area would benefit everybody.

 

Another major example where scientific cooperation could save lives isCuba's extensive research on tropical diseases, such as dengue fever.This viral disease is epidemic throughout the tropics, notably in theAmericas, and one of the first recorded outbreaks occurred inPhiladelphia in the 18th century. Today, one of the world's mostoutstanding research centers dedicated to dengue fever is in Cuba, andalthough it actively cooperates with Latin America and Africa, there isalmost no interaction with U.S. scientists. Dengue fever presents athreat to the U.S. mainland, and sharing knowledge resources to counteroutbreaks of the disease would be an investment in the health securityof both peoples.

Cuba has also made important strides in biotechnology, including theproduction of several important vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, andits research interests continue to expand in diverse fields, rangingfrom drug addiction treatment to the preservation of biodiversity.Cuban scientists are engaged in research cooperation with manycountries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, China, andIndia. Yet there is no program of cooperation with any U.S. researchinstitution.

The value system of science--openness, shared communication, integrity,and a respect for evidence--provides a framework for open engagementand could encourage evidence-based approaches that cross from scienceinto the social, economic, and political arenas. Beyond allowing forthe mutual leveraging of knowledge and resources, scientific contactscould build important cultural and social links among peoples. A recentCouncil on Foreign Relations report argues that the United States needsto revamp its engagement with Latin America because it is no longer theonly significant force in this hemisphere. U.S. policies that are seenas unfairly penalizing Cuba, including the imposition of tradelimitations that extend into scientific relations, continue toundermine U.S. standing in the entire region, especially becauseneither Cuba nor any other Latin American country imposes suchrestrictions.

As a start, we urge that the present license that permits restrictedtravel to Cuba by scientists, as dictated by the U.S. TreasuryDepartment's Office of Foreign Assets Control, be expanded so as toallow direct cooperation in research. At the same time, Cuba shouldfavor increased scientific exchanges. Allowing scientists to fullyengage will not only support progress in science, it may well favorpositive interactions elsewhere to promote human well-being. The U.S.embargo on Cuba has hindered exchanges for the past 50 years. Let uscelebrate our mutual anniversaries by starting a new era of scientificcooperation.

10.1126/science.1162561 [2]

 

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¹Sergio Jorge Pastrana is the Foreign Secretary of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba. E-mail: pastrana@ceniai.inf.cu [3].

[4]²Michael T. Clegg is the ForeignSecretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Donald BrenProfessor of Biological Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology atthe School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine.E-mail: mclegg@uci.edu [5]

 

Harvard College Program in Cuba

Reprinted from The Harvard Crimson, October 2, 2006

Harvard is preparing to launch a spring-semester study-abroad program at the University of Havana, despite strict federal regulations on U.S. travel to communist Cuba and activists' concerns about academic freedom in the island-nation. The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) and the Harvard College Office of International Programs (OIP) have obtained a federal license for a joint effort with Cuba's preeminent educational institution.

Entire Article... [6]


Reprintedfrom The Harvard Crimson, October 4, 2006

When the then-recently triumphant Castro, a graduate of the University of Havana, came to Harvard in April of 1959, he addressed an enraptured audience, explaining his early desire to study here. Now, Castro's alma mater will welcome Harvard students.

Entire Article... [7]