Geneva, Cuba on Wednesday defended health care as a basic human right and expressed concern for the financial, food, energy and environmental crisis gripping the world.

Addressing the 64th Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), Cuban Deputy Health Minister Jose Angel Portal stated that the current international situation is affecting many countries.

In many places, in addition to hunger and malnutrition, the people have limited access to health services, particularly the poorest sectors, Portal said.

The Cuban official said it was positive that the WHO meeting had prioritized the issue of prevention and control of non-transmissible diseases, taking into account the current world situation of morbidity and mortality.

Portal reaffirmed Cuba’s support for the WHO strategy to fight non-transmissible diseases, based on surveillance, primary prevention and stronger healthcare systems.

The Cuban deputy minister also used the opportunity to highlight his country’s achievements in this sector, such as an infant mortality rate of 4.5 per 1,000 live births at the end of 2010.