These achievements are made possible by the Revolution, which with great sacrifice has supported the development of our public health system – universal, free and accessible to 100% of the Cuban population, focused on human beings and not profit.

Although the battle is far from over, Cuba has managed to remain in a favorable position in the fight against the pandemic. Our biopharmaceutical industry and other scientific centers are currently conducting 70 research projects and clinical trials, in addition to producing medicines to the treat COVID patients, which have been requested by dozens of nations.

“The use of two novel drugs to control the hyper-inflammatory reaction that can occur in the lungs, has increased survival rates of patients in serious condition to more than 80% and for those in critical condition to more than 75%,” reported Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal Miranda.

This is not the reality for sister peoples across our continent, and we cannot remain indifferent. The World Health Organization recently declared Latin America as the new epicenter of the pandemic, adding to the existing burden we bear as the most unequal region on the planet, a result of decades of plunder of our natural resources and neoliberal policies.

As we have done previously in the Non-Aligned Movement Forum and the World Health Assembly, Cuba yesterday, May 28, reiterated our solidarity with the peoples of the region and of the world, during a Latin American and Caribbean Parliaments online working meeting.

The Vice President of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Ana María Mari Machado, speaking during the debate, recalled that, without neglecting the our own people, 28 brigades of Cuban health professionals have joined the efforts of 24 other countries to combat the pandemic, adding to the more than 28,000 collaborators who were already providing services in 59 nations, despite the campaign of the United States government against Cuban medical cooperation, to discredit and sabotage our efforts.

Let others promote hatred, wars and lies, silencing inconvenient facts. Cuba prefers to give an example in action, offering the best of our people’s values, and continuing to serve as a sister around the world, tirelessly, in defense of life.

(Source: Granma)

Cubans, and in particular residents of the Havana neighborhood of Marianao, will never forget what happened on May 8, 1980, when counterrevolutionary elements set fire to the Le Van Tam preschool. The rapid intervention of students, residents and firefighters prevented a tragedy from occurring.

The fire began at 4:45 p.m., from the theater on the ground floor of the ten-story building. The flames quickly blocked the central stairwell and the two elevators. At that time there were 570 children in the building, including 177 boarded on site, and many of the 156 workers and assistants who worked at the center.

A group of students from the nearby José Aguilera Maceiras Secondary School, were among the first to offer help. A soon as they saw the flames, without thinking twice, they ran to enter the building.

This is how Etián Nodarse Chirino, then 14 years of age, tells it: “I quickly jumped over the wall, and went into the bank, which faced one side of the preschool, and through it to get to the stairs. The smoke was already thick. I went up to the first floor and with the firemen and other people, started to take the children out into a courtyard, since they were already beginning to smell the smoke coming through the doors. We started to go down, with the little ones, only months old, who could not walk, tied with rope and sheets. One by one we lowered them carefully, and they were taken away from the building.

“Then we went up to the fourth floor, because help was needed there, and we carried them down the stairs in our arms. I could see how those who took part in the rescue were determined and courageous. The danger was no obstacle to saving everyone.

Alfredo Garcia Tarajano had not taken his daughter to the preschool that day, since she was sick. As he was preparing to head to the pharmacy, a neighbor knocked loudly on his door, shouting that there was a fire in the building.

A volunteer firefighter at his workplace, he immediately joined the rescue effort, and amidst the frantic effort, he was stopped short by an impressive figure: “I found Fidel standing in front of me at the back of the building. I didn’t know what to do. He held out his hand to me and I said my hand was muddy. He said, ‘What mud, what mud,’ and shook my hand firmly.

“The first thing Fidel asked was if there were any children injured or burned. He asked everyone who came by the same question. When he was convinced that the children were not in danger, he asked my opinion of the event. I replied that it was clearly sabotage, the evidence was there. The fire was premeditated.”

Jesús Fernández, an electrician at the preschool, agreed: “There was no electrical installation where the fire started, plus the electricity to light the theater was off. I had personally shut it off hours before.

“I have no doubt that this fire was coldly calculated sabotage; but once again, we stopped the macabre plans of imperialism. What monsters!”

(Source: Granma)

For decades, the presencer of children and teenagers with their uniforms and school attributes, has given a distinctive touch to elections in the island, where there are no police and military forces to guarantee the tranquility and normal evolution of voting.

‘For me it is a matter of pride to guard elections of the people, I have done this many times and always with great happiness’, commented to Prensa Latina Thalia, pupil of sixth grade of the capital’s municipality of Boyeros.

Likewise Reynaldo, who for the first time does this with great enthusiasm.

I had to get up very early and now, every time someone deposits their ballot I have to salute and say ‘voted’, said the seven-year old resident in the Havana municipality of Playa.

Also Cuban adolescents and youths carry out a leading role in election day, when over eight million citizens over 16 years of age will elect the members of Parliament and the delegates to the Provincial Assemblies of the People’s Power.

In declarations to Prensa Latina, the member of the National Electoral Commission Gil Ramon Gonzalez, stressed the participation of over 17 thousand university and mid-level schools as collaborators at the polling stations, a figure that was first established in the partial elections of 2015 and has the mission of protecting the process’ legality.

‘Their presence allows to have a different appreciation of the process, different from that of an electoral authority. The youths are immerse in some of the most significant moments of the day, as the opening of the polling stations, the emission of reports and the compliance with the law, that is very important’, explained the also Vice Minister of High Education.

(Prensa Latina)

The vaccine is administered with a few drops taken orally, in two stages. The first dose is being provided during the period February 20-26, for 363,778 children between the ages of one month and two years, 11 months, 29 days. They will receive a second dose April 17-23, along with 108,110 nine-year-olds who will receive a booster.

The vaccine was distributed to the country’s 451 neighborhood polyclinics, which have established vaccination sites with the support of family doctors, community facilitators, members of organizations like the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).

Dr. Lena López Ambrón, head of the Ministry of Public Health’s Immunization Program, emphasized to the press that in remote areas, locales with adequate conditions, including cold storage, have been established to ensure that all children are vaccinated.
Dr. Lena López Ambrón, head of the Ministry of Public Health’s Immunization Program, stated, Photo: Nuria Barbosa

She explained that the healthcare system’s records allow for the identification of all children who must be vaccinated, an effective campaign organized, and 100% of this age group administered the vaccine, to ensure families’ confidence that their children are protected.

Dr. López shared important information for parents, recalling that the vaccine should not be administered to children with a high fever, nausea, or diarrhea. Nor should boys and girls who are immunodeficient be vaccinated, she said, while noting that a special make-up period will be established for children who cannot be vaccinated during the established period for one reason or another.

The doctor also reiterated that children must wait 30 minutes before drinking or eating anything, after they receive the vaccine.

Dr. Lopez continued, “This is an innocuous, benign vaccine, which does not cause adverse side effects. The children are evaluated beforehand by the medical team in their neighborhood, and at the time the dose is administered, their healthcare identification card is presented to certify that they are approved for the immunization.”

The current campaign is meant to insert the country in worldwide efforts to eliminate polio, which has been eradicated in Cuba since 1962, given the commitment of the Revolution’s leadership to ensure quality of life for the population.

“In Cuba,” Dr. Lopez said, “high levels of coverage have always been achieved, and this time will be no different. The immunization program guarantees that the spreading of diseases is avoided, and this has become one of the achievements of Cuban medicine and a conquest of the Revolution.”

Offering a similar opinion was Dr. Miguel Ángel Galindo, a consultant to the national program and a participant in all previous campaigns. He praised the role of Cuban nurses, who are responsible for administering the vaccine to each and every child.

As a founder of the program, he commented that his participation has been very satisfying professionally, having contributed to Cuba eliminating poliomyelitis, a severe viral disease, which can vary in its seriousness from an asymptomatic infection, to light fever, meningitis, irreversible paralysis, and even death.

According to experts, the infectious agent is a virus, and that human beings, basically children, are its only carriers. To date in Cuba, some

83,800,000 doses of the anti-polio vaccine have been administered to the population under 69 years of age.

Although the state has allocated significant resources for the acquisition of this and other vaccines, Cuban families receive them free of cost. Likewise, to carry out these massive campaigns, material and human resources are made available to the public heath system.

(Granma)

Dr. Sierra spoke during a press conference called by the Cuban Industrial Property Office (OCPI) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), yesterday, May 10, at the Havana hotel Memories Miramar.

He reported that BioCubaFarma today produces 10 of the 13 vaccines administered by the country’s public health system, which has allowed nine diseases to be eliminated, and five maintained at very low rates of infection.

The scientist additionally noted that a cholera vaccine being developed in conjunction with the Finlay Institute, the National Scientific Research Center, and the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute, is in the final stages of clinical trials, while phase two clinical trials with Heberprovac, for prostrate cancer, have shown positive results.

He reported that, as of the end of 2015, BioCubaFarma had been conceded 2,438 patents on an international level, the majority securing biotechnological products, followed by medical equipment and diagnostic tools.

Also participating was John Sandage, WIPO’s adjunct director for patents and technology.

(Granma)