If there is a sphere of society that has been affected by the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba, it is Public Health.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- In this eastern province - as in the entire country -, the damage is evident, aggravated in the last year by a pandemic that has caused health systems in developed countries to collapse.

More than 28 million pesos have been allocated for the confrontation of COVID-19 in this territory since March 2020; and only in the first quarter of 2021, the figure rises to 14.6 million, higher than the more than 13 in the past year. The increase is associated with the Ordering Task and, above all, with the resurgence of the siege imposed on the Island.

Despite the high costs, no effort or resources have been spared here to save lives. Currently, there are more than 20 centers authorized for the isolation of travelers, suspected and their contacts, besides one for asymptomatic positives patients, with the guarantees of accommodation, food, medicines, transport, fuel ... A single patient in any of these facilities represents a cost of 1,500 pesos a day, which is multiplied taking into account the high number of admitted persons each day.

In the midst of the international situation generated by the pandemic, aggravated here by the economic blockade, this province recently inaugurated its Molecular Biology Laboratory, which not only contributes to the diagnosis of COVID-19 but represents a milestone for the development of Medical Sciences.

Those who live in this part of the Cuban geography have suffered from the shortage of drugs, reagents, and expendable materials, such as cotton, gloves, suture thread, tape, and radiographic material, which endanger the lives of many. The blockade denies access to technologies; it has limited the application of modern treatment schemes, especially to oncology patients, to which is added the few cytostatic serums and other vital drugs in the treatment of cancer.

Fernando Ferrera Núñez, deputy director of Electromedicine in Las Tunas, said that this genocidal policy prevents the acquisition of spare parts and vital supplies in the development of programs such as Maternal and Child Care, Serious Patient Care, Hemodialysis, Integral for Control Cancer, and others aimed at the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

“All the impediments have forced us to buy spare parts from third countries and to encourage the activity of innovators. Thanks to the work of the electromedical personnel, more than five thousand equipment work today in the province; about 400, which have some kind of affectation, are waiting for resources.” 

The pediatric population does not escape from this reality, so the few resources are concentrated in national centers of high development. The families from Las Tunas must go to the capital to receive a service that could be received here if the North American blockade did not prevent it. Despite this, the children of Las Tunas receive quality assistance from a health staff that is encouraged every day in the face of all obstacles.

There have been more than 60 years of this siege, but nothing has been able to stop the humanist work of the Revolution, so Public Health enjoys great international prestige and defends, above all, the lives of its children.