Thirty more teenage pregnancies than in the previous period, reinforce the prominence of this as one of the main health problems facing Las Tunas, with 18 percent for every 100 pregnant women, and call the authorities of the Maternal and Child Care Program (PAMI by its acronym in Spanish) to immediate intervention strategies in communities with higher incidences.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Dr. Onelis Nuñez López, a second-degree specialist in Epidemiology, emphasized in the most recent Scientific Conference on teenage pregnancy that this phenomenon has been on the rise in the last 12 years, with a registered increase of 35 per thousand women between the ages of 15 and 19.

Dr. Onelis Nuñez López, a second-degree specialist in Epidemiology.

She also said that of the total number of terminations of pregnancy due to abortion (1,258) at the Dr, Ernesto Guevara General Teaching Hospital, 258 were adolescent patients, representing 20.3 percent.

Doctor of Science Ángela Iraice Leyva León reflected on the causes and consequences of this problem, which has a social component that cannot be separated from it, and emphasized that for effective intervention, it is necessary to achieve intersectoral alliances, with greater involvement of all the factors of the community, including the highest authorities.

She also called for working together in the health areas and medical offices with the most alarming figures to achieve a true health promotion, aimed at avoiding pregnancies and at the same time to work with the family and the school on one of its causes: the early initiation of sexual relations.

"We have to achieve capacity building in family planning consultations, put contraceptive methods in the places with the highest demand, promote them, but once the pregnancy has materialized, we have to strengthen capacities so that this girl does not face complications or die".

Jhoannys Diéguez, head of the Provincial Nursing Section, urged to take more advantage of the places where this age group lives, with campaigns that are more similar to them, even from virtual premises. It is no longer a matter of stratifying from afar," she commented, "we must get closer to the vulnerable population and also go to Manatí with specific strategies and Jobabo.

Dr. Osmara López Borrero, at the head of PAMI in Las Tunas.

For her part, the head of PAMI in Las Tunas, Dr. Osmara López Borrero, called for alliances from the medical assistance for assertive communication and to visualize teenage pregnancy as a real problem, and warned that many families currently have normalized it even ignoring the associated comorbidities that put at risk the life not only of the baby but also of the pregnant woman.

During the scientific conference, Professor Erikc Rondón, a methodologist from Dr. Zoilo Marinello Medical Sciences University, presented the results of his doctoral thesis on this subject and emphasized the need to achieve a more integrated approach from the academic point of view.

He underlined, as part of his research work, that the reality in Las Tunas is characterized by insufficient preventive work, little presence in the characterized areas, and an ineffective application of public policies, besides the scarce use of community assets such as psychologists, teachers, and leaders for the sake of better micro-social functioning.

He also explained that research on the subject has been carried out in the province since 1988 and the phenomenon is still on the rise, so it is necessary to improve health strategies, change approaches and address the phenomenon also from the social point of view.

Dialogue and consensus prevailed during the day, and the participants advocated multi-sectorial, starting with Primary Health Care, but in conjunction with the school and the home.