Dr. Lea Guido, the representative in Cuba for the Pan-American and World Health Organizations, highlighted Cuba’s solidarity collaboration in its struggle against infectious diseases of the people in need.

During a meeting with the press, on the occasion of World Health Day, to be hold on April 7th, Dr. Guido stressed the example of Cuba in that field and explained how the country can continue to fight those diseases by way of saving resources in order to get a greater impact.

Guido also highlighted the provision of services by Cuban medical staff in different nations such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Haiti, as well as training for those populations. “This could be a message on how to fight the diseases,” stressed Guido by referring to the anniversary, this year devoted to resistance to the antimicrobials, under the slogan: "If we do not take action today, there will be no cure tomorrow."

Guido extolled Cuba’s results, where the health system is accessible to all people, there is a drug industry and Regulatory Bureau to control the quality of the products, and supervision of imported drugs is also carried out.

Dr. Andres Zambrana, hygiene and epidemiology official of the Ministry of Public Health, explained that the main cause of medical consultation in Cuba is related to acute respiratory infections, 80 percent of which are viral illnesses, so there is no need for the use of antibiotics.

Dr. Zambrana reported that six million medical consultations were carried out in 2010, and an average of five million during previous years.

Zambrana stated that the antimicrobial resistance is a phenomenon arising since the emergence of antibiotics and he stressed that the best way to deal with an infectious process is not having it; so prevention is vital, said Zambrana.

He recalled that at the time the Revolution triumphed, the infant mortality in Cuba was estimated at 60 per thousand newborn, many of them due to the most acute diarrheal infections.

This situation was reversed with the National Mother and Child Program, which provides protection for children against 13 infectious. Those diseases are not a health problem any more; last year the infant mortality decreased to 4.5, the lowest figure in our history.

A translation by:  Silke Paez Carr

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