In a report published on the site Scidev.net, a city-based specialized in bringing science to development through news and analysis, the authors highlight how this strategy of vaccination with safe and effective immunogens could face situations of this type in environments with resource-poor, low-income countries, and in the developing world.

At the same time, they demand the reduction of the barriers that block global access to biotechnological innovations from that country.

Last June, the team of US researchers, together with colleagues from Africa and the Caribbean, made an official visit to Cuba, the first high-level visit in five years, to exchange with colleagues from the island on the production of vaccines against covid-19 from the country.

The delegation was led by co-chair Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Along with the scientist came Cristina Rabadán-Diehl, PharmD, PhD, MPH, who for 25 years led international work at the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Health and Human Services, before becoming Director Westat Clinical Trials Associate.

For Osterholm, what he learned about Cuba’s extraordinary work with the covid-19 vaccine made it clear that it can be an important actor in increasing global access to life-saving advances.

He considered that although the policies are complex, “they must face the barriers that prevent their impressive group of scientists and public health experts from doing it.”

The report further explains that the purpose of the fact-finding mission was threefold: first, to learn how and why a small country of some 11 million people, and facing considerable economic hardship, had developed, manufactured, and deployed its own vaccines, It was shown to be more than 95% effective in preventing disease, severity, and death.

Second, understand the launch of the vaccine in Cuba, strategy and preliminary results and third, explore Cuba’s approach to science in the context of public health.

The vaccine development effort and the immunization model could reveal opportunities to reduce global inequalities in access to vaccines and other health innovations, the scientists insist in their study.

They also highlight that the delegation was aware of predictions that the world is dangerously close to the next pandemic, with cross-zoonotic infections, which already account for 75% of emerging infectious diseases, on the rise amid climate change.

They were also alarmed by the unequal access to vaccines that has prolonged the pandemic so far, and how it highlights a broader failure in the current surge in biomedical innovation to reach billions of people in low- and low-middle-income countries.

The visit to Havana was organized by Medicc (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba), a US-based non-profit organization that promotes health-related dialogue and collaboration.

Since 1997, Medicc has facilitated exchanges between Cuban and US health professionals, academics, policymakers, foundations, students, and leaders of medically underserved communities.

(With information from PL)

Consumer price growth in the 19 countries that share the European currency accelerated to 10.7% in October from 9.9% the previous month, Eurostat data showed on Monday.

This increase would be driven by an astronomical 41.9% growth in energy costs, compared to last year, according to the EU statistical office.

Likewise, the value of food, which increased by 13.1%, and that of imported industrial goods pushed prices up.

The European Central Bank has raised interest rates a total of 200 basis points (2%) in the last 3 months and has already promised a further tightening for December.

The ECB deposit rate, now at 1.5%, is seen to peak at just under 2.9% in 2023, a big jump from expectations around 2.6%. after the body’s meeting last Thursday.
(Taken from RT in Spanish)

When the first cases of covid-19 were detected in Cuba in March 2020 and the pandemic began to spread throughout the national territory, 243 measures were already weighing on the Cuban economy and people, which to date hit sources of income, operations as well as exports and tourism.

At the same time, unilateral decisions by Washington fractured relations between families in Cuba and abroad.

Although they were activated during the Trump administration, Biden has kept them unchanged. A demonstration that, in the United States, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party embody the same hegemonic strategy of imperial domination.

In the case of Cuba, in line with the speech enunciated from the White House, which sought to present the country as a failed state, on digital networks the media financed by the United States government tried to conceal the criminal nature of the system of coercive measures against the island.
Through the analysis of experts, testimonies and documents, this chapter of the audiovisual series Archivo.cu reveals why this unilateral policy denies rights to Cubans.

(By: Daily Perez Guillen)

This was announced on Tuesday -as part of the 15th health for all fair, which takes place at the Pabexpo exhibition center-, engineer Alejandro César González Urquiza, member of the team that developed the ‘device, which clarified that the license It was awarded after a rigorous validation process.

Previously, he explained, two satisfactory experimental tests were carried out on pigs, which were ventilated under the supervision of the regulatory authority. Subsequently, a stability diagnosis of the equipment was approved, which was put into service for a long continuous period, without showing any failures.

After all the validation process carried out with Cecmed, where tests were carried out on the software, the pneumatic system and the electronics of the equipment, the entity granted the authorization for use in humans, in order to testing it in patients with ventilatory needs. .

Professor Alberto Martínez Sardiñas, anesthesiologist, intensivist and project manager, indicated that two of these devices are already located at the Calixto García Hospital and the Neurology Institute, respectively, while the third, which is now on display at the Fair, He will be transferred to the Hospital Miguel Enríquez, also in Havana.

He specified that within ten days clinical trials should begin in ventilated patients of these hospitals, with medical personnel previously trained and advised by the developers of the device.

Martínez Sardiñas pointed out that this equipment represents a possible solution to provide all forms of ventilation to severe and critical patients in Cuba. It was born from the difficulties of importing these devices, which during the covid-19 acquired a high cost.

The exchange was led by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and president of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, a member of the Political Bureau.

The head of the Ministry of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, reported that there is dengue transmission in the 15 provinces and the Isle of Youth. The incidence rate of suspected cases in the past week, number 37 of the year, increased with respect to the previous one by 2.5 percent.

The infestation and disease rates continue to warn that institutional, family and business responsibility in order to reduce the outbreaks of the Aedes aegypti mosquito is key in dengue control, starting with the quality of the work of those who work in the anti-vector campaign .

In the meeting by videoconference with political and government authorities from all the country’s territories, the president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Esteban Lazo Hernández; the deputy prime ministers, Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, Inés María Chapman Waugh, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruíz, Alejandro Gil Fernández and Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, as well as ministers and other authorities.

The meeting, which systematically analyzes the behavior of a group of sectors and activities directly linked to the daily life of the population, also evaluated the covid-19 epidemic, whose indicators continue to go towards a sustained decline, a sign of the control that Cuba has achieved in confronting the disease and the transmission of the virus.

The issue was also addressed at the weekly meeting of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister with experts and scientists for health issues. Doctor of Science Gerardo Guillén Nieto, director of Biomedical Research at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), presented the Cuban strategy for the dengue vaccine.

It is a path that still requires time, but that is becoming more and more viable given the strength of the wealth of knowledge and results achieved by Cuban scientists working on this initiative and which has achieved great international prestige.

It is a national project that began in 1992, at the initiative of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, and is jointly developed by the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) and the CIGB.

At this week’s meeting of experts and scientists for Health issues, the usual forecasts on the behavior of the covid-19 epidemic for the days to come were also presented.

The information was explained, as is customary, by Doctor of Science Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing at the University of Havana.

He referred that the reports of the disease in the country continue to decline in all provinces and in the coming weeks control of the disease should be maintained.

The prevention and control actions of the new coronavirus were also analyzed by Dr. Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Minsap, who offered an update on the Cuban Vaccination Strategy against COVID-19.

She explained that soon the country will add the application to our population of 42 million doses of national vaccines. Cuba, she explained, continues to lead, with 400 doses per hundred inhabitants, this process worldwide.

The covid-19 is not over, said Dr. Morales Suárez; however, she noted, only 67.9 percent of the world’s population has received at least one dose; however, in low-income countries, immunization has only reached 22.5 percent of their population.

Only seven countries, including Cuba, exceed 90 percent of the population fully vaccinated; at the same time, international booster doses are no more than 31 percent, she added.

He referred that the reports of the disease in the country continue to decline in all provinces and in the coming weeks control of the disease must be maintained.
The prevention and control actions of the new coronavirus were also analyzed by Dr. Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Minsap, who offered an update on the Cuban Vaccination Strategy against COVID-19.
She explained that soon the country will add the application to our population of 42 million doses of national vaccines. Cuba, she explained, continues to lead, with 400 doses per hundred inhabitants, this process worldwide.
The covid-19 is not over, said Dr. Morales Suárez; however, she noted, only 67.9 percent of the world’s population has received at least one dose; however, in low-income countries, immunization has only reached 22.5 percent of their population.
Only seven countries, including Cuba, exceed 90 percent of the population fully vaccinated; at the same time, international booster doses are no more than 31 percent, she added.
The Director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Minsap added that in our country 1,930,357 children and adolescents are fully immunized, 98.8 percent of the people in those ages who are vaccinable; and 1,459,392 have received booster doses.
This is something – pointed out Dr. Morales Suárez – that makes us proud, that speaks of the effort and dedication of those who work in our scientific centers and the health system.

(By: Rene Tamayo)

The idea -which arose in the midst of covid-19- was promoted by the Union of Informatics of Cuba and developed by the Eureka Scientific Group of the “José Antonio Echeverría” Technological University of Havana (Cujae), led by Professor Joaquín Pina Amargos.

The pilot test began in Playa and Marianao, and based on the positive results, it was generalized to the rest of the municipalities of the capital.

In what context does Cola.CU arise?

Due to the shortage of essential products in Cuban chain stores, caused by the global crisis due to the pandemic and the tightening of the United States blockade, hoarders, coleros and resellers increased in the country; figures whom the government set out to eliminate.

“Foreign and Cuban software that allows queue management does not have the ability to specify the products offered and to alert the organizer if a customer has recently registered in any other queue according to the number of days declared by the local government. ”, Joaquín Pina Amargós, also president of the Union of Computer Scientists of Cuba in Havana, explains to Cubadebate.

Precisely, these two functionalities are the main advantages of Cola.CU, software that consists of two versions, mobile and desktop, to achieve integrated queue management in a given region.

According to data offered by the development team, Cola.CU has worked daily without interruption since September 1, 2020, with more than 1.25 million different people registered and more than 250,000 beneficiaries who have been able to buy thanks to the detection of recent buyers.

How does Cola.CU work?

In this software system you can specify the products that are offered and alert the organizer of the queue if a customer has recently registered in any other queue. It consists of two computer applications that work offline (in this first version) but are synchronized daily by exchanging files.

For its part, the version for Android mobiles, Cola.CU Apk, allows the daily management of the queue for a given store. On the other hand, the desktop version Cola.CU App, allows unifying all the information of the stores where it is established that the same person buys only once during a certain period.

Thanks to its flexibility, it is possible to establish specific work rules that are dynamically approved by the Defense Councils of each municipality, for example, the frequency of the purchase of a certain electronic product or those with a high consumption cycle such as chicken or detergent.

The parameters are configured from the desktop version so that all mobile applications synchronized with the first one have the same information.

In a second version that is developed from a Computer Engineering diploma thesis, the possibility of connecting to the cloud is incorporated to achieve the exchange of information without the need for physical files.

A hundred students, professors and volunteers from the Joven Club of all the municipalities of Havana and other entities of the Fight Against Coleros (LCC) operation groups have joined this task.

This application can be applied in the future in any region where several establishments are concentrated and people are free to buy from them.

Economic, social and environmental benefits

“The main novelty of Cola.CU is that it preventatively limits, in situ and without the need for a connection to the mobile data network, coleros, hoarders, resellers and illicit commercialization that may be carried out”, explains Professor Pina Amargós.

Based on the products that a person has bought, based on his purchase history, the queue organizer can reject this customer, informing him of his situation. In this way, it allows access to other people who until now had not been able to acquire them.

Likewise, Cola.CU allows realistic queue management as the organizer can mark those who buy, abandon, rejoin, go through a certain priority, or are rejected for having registered or bought in other recent queues. “This enables real-time operational work,” I added.

Also, the software guarantees the registration of all people because the primary key is the number of any of the existing identity documents: Identity card, military card or passport. “The identity is verified by means of the date of birth and the control digit, providing greater reliability of the identities.”

Optionally, the municipality of residence of each client can be added to be able to carry out a demographic analysis of mobility, says the professor.

Among the main functionalities is that of exporting, importing and adding data from other queues, including the possibility of integrating data from nearby queues to achieve better control on the same day.

In addition, taking into account the rules established by the Municipal Defense Council, the apk allows the entry of the same person to be limited to a set of stores during the time that is set. Control of the movement of people and the demand for products is also achieved, allowing CDMs to make decisions about distribution adjustments.

In Cola.CU there is a scanner system created, but it is not yet deployed in all stores (only half are reported).

According to Fermín Rivas Sotomayor, one of the developers, there are interesting data but they are not yet used by the authorities to direct the distribution, take measures with the hoarders that are detected and unite with the data of the oficodas.

Among the plans of the application development group is the deployment of a dashboard on the web that includes the main reports and helps managers in decision making. Also, develop a version of the application for iOS devices.

Main figures of Cola.CU

More than 2 years of exploitation in all the municipalities of Havana,

+540 thousand people benefited from the detection of others who have made recent purchases,
700 stores,
+130 thousand queues,
+20 million records,
+1.5 million different people

(By: Thalia Fuentes Puebla/ cU)

We inform our population that today the second case of Monkeypox diagnosed in the national territory was confirmed, which is not related to the previous case.

This is a Cuban citizen, resident in the United States, 60 years old, male, who arrived in Cuba on August 26, 2022 through the José Martí international airport in Havana, from Miami, United States. During the International Sanitary Control at the border, he did not declare a health problem.

That same day he went to the residence of a relative in Havana, where he remained until August 30.

On the 28th he began with headache, fever, malaise, sore throat and later skin lesions appeared in the form of macules and papules, attending the health services on August 30, due to the persistence of symptoms. Taking into account this clinical picture, it was decided to admit him for isolation, study and treatment.

On August 31, monkeypox infection was confirmed in the patient, in a PCR study carried out at the IPK National Reference Laboratory.

The epidemiological survey, contact identification and other focus control actions established in the action protocol for these cases continue to be deepened.

Ministry of Public Health

Havana, August 31, 2022

“Year 64 of the Revolution”

At the end of Saturday, 405 patients were admitted: 160 suspects and 245 confirmed (active cases), of which 244 maintain a stable clinical evolution

2,309 samples were processed, of which 70 were positive. The country accumulates 14,092,790 samples analyzed, with 1,110,407 positive.

Of the total cases (70):

–52 were contacts of confirmed cases

–Nine have a source of infection abroad

-In nine the source of infection has not been specified.

–29 correspond to the female sex, and 41 to the male.

–11 were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. 147,429 are accumulated, 13.3% of those confirmed to date.

–By age groups: under 20 years old (47), from 20 to 39 years old (9), from 40 to 59 years old (13) and 60 years old and over (1).

Cuba accumulates 8,530 deaths (none this Saturday), for a lethality of 0.77% (1.07% in the world and 1.6% in the Americas); two evacuated and 57 returned to their countries.

This Saturday 58 discharges were registered. To date, 1,101,573 patients (99.2%) have recovered from the disease.

Residence of those confirmed by provinces and municipalities
Artemis: 1 case

• San Antonio de Los Baños: 1 (confirmed case contact).

Havana: 4 cases

• October 10: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Marianao: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Beach: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).

Massacres: 5 cases

• Cárdenas: 1 (imported).
• Colon: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Jovellanos: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Matanzas: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Perico: 1 (confirmed case contact).

Villa Clara: 1 case

• Santa Clara: 1 (confirmed case contact).

Sancti Spiritus: 6 cases

• Cabaiguán: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Jatibonico: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Sancti Spíritus: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).
• Yaguajay: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).

Ciego de Avila: 6 cases

• Majagua: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Ciego de Ávila: 4 (2 contacts of a confirmed case and 2 without a specified source of infection).
• Baraguá: 1 (no specified source of infection).

Camaguey: 10 cases

• Camagüey: 5 (4 confirmed case contact and 1 imported).
• Florida: 3 (contacts of confirmed cases).
• Najasa: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Sierra de Cubitas: 1 (confirmed case contact).

Las Tunas: 3 cases

• Las Tunas: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Puerto Padre: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).

Granma: 8 cases

• Bartolomé Masó: 4 (contacts of confirmed cases).
• Bayamo: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Manzanillo: 3 (contacts of confirmed cases).

Holguin: 25 cases

• Antilles: 1 (imported).
• Báguanos: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Banes: 1 (imported).
• Cacocum: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).
• Calixto García: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).
• Cueto: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Gibara: 1 (imported).
• Holguín: 6 (no specified source of infection).
• Mayarí: 2 (1 confirmed case contact and 1 imported).
• Moa: 1 (confirmed case contact).
• Rafael Freyre: 4 (2 contacts of confirmed cases and 2 imported).
• Sagua de Tánamo: 1 (imported).
• Urbano Noris: 2 (contacts of confirmed cases).

Guantanamo: 1 case

From August 14 to 20, week 33 of the year, transmission was opened in the provinces of Mayabeque (in the municipality of Güines), Cienfuegos (in Rodas) and Guantánamo (in Caimanera), it was reported at the meeting this Tuesday of the Group temporary work of the Government for the prevention and control of Covid-19.

In videoconference format with the political and government authorities of the 15 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, the exchange was led, from the Palace of the Revolution, by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic , Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz.

An analysis of the epidemiological situation of dengue and Aedes Aegypti at the end of week 33 was presented by Dr. Carilda Peña García, Deputy Minister of Public Health, who reported that 22,509 SUMA IgM samples were processed for dengue diagnosis, 933 more than in the previous week.

The studies showed 11,634 reactive cases, 251 more than week 32, but a positivity of 51.7 percent, somewhat lower than the previous period.

The highest positivity corresponded to the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, as well as to the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Havana, Las Tunas, Holguín, Camagüey and Guantánamo.

Regarding the levels of infestation of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, Peña García explained that in week 33, compared to the same week of the previous year, the focus of the vector is higher by 49.5 percent, with 1,683 more foci. Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Camagüey, Villa Clara, Matanzas and Las Tunas contribute 74.1 percent of the country’s focus.

Regarding the confrontation and control of COVID-19, it was learned that at the end of last week (August 20), transmission increased by 28.9 percent compared to July.

The highest levels of transmission in the current month occur in Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Havana and Guantánamo, where 71.9 percent of the cases diagnosed in the country during August are concentrated.

In week 33, one death from COVID-19 was reported, after 13 weeks without deaths in Cuba from this cause. The cumulative lethality from the start of the pandemic to August 20 was 0.77 percent (1,109,992 cases with 8,530 deaths).

The meeting of the Temporary Working Group of the Government for the prevention and control of the pandemic, also followed up on the first reported case of monkeypox in the country —which led to the death of the patient, an Italian tourist— and surveillance that is followed with those who had contact with him.

The meeting also paid attention to the strengthening of the distribution system of oxygen and other gases in the territories; and to the continuity of actions to support Cupet by other organizations in the distribution of fuels, as well as the implementation and control of compliance with the organizational measures for its commercialization.

The measures aimed at facing the current energy situation and reducing the effects on the water supply by different methods were addressed; as well as the control of compliance with the plan for programmed effects on the electrical service and the permanent updating of information for the population.

(By: Rene Tamayo)

Physical examination revealed skin lesions that led to clinical suspicion of monkeypox. Samples were taken and sent to the national reference laboratory of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, where the infection was confirmed by real-time PCR, at dawn on the 20th.

The patient is in critical condition, with danger to his life. Possible associated causes that may have conditioned its severity are studied. Epidemiological research is also deepened and focus control actions are carried out, as provided in the approved protocol to deal with this disease in the country.

(With information from the Ministry of Public Health)