Post by PLPost by Dan ChristensenPost by PLPost by ManuelThe health care in Gringoland is even more substandard unless you are
rich. Don't bullshit!
Before Castro Cuba was above Spain, Portugal, and at par with Belgium
in doctors and hospitals.
Again, Cuba is widely considered
Thanks for confirming that it has slipped in relative rankings comrade Dan
or do you claim that Cuba has a better health system than Belgium?
Thanks for confirming that Cuba has the best health care system in Latin
America despite the best efforts of all you embargo-Nazis.
Post by PL"WHO and the PanAmerican Health
Organization (WHO's Regional Office for the Western Hemisphere) cannot
report
to the world without clearance from the Cuban government."
See: www.promedmail.org Archive Number 19970627.1390
That was 1997. The WHO awarded Fidel the Health-for-All medal for Cuba's
advances in public health the following year (1998). Some years, even your
fellow ultra-conservatives at the Washington-based World Bank were onside as
they cited Cuba's "great job" in health care (and education).
Post by PL2. Cuba's "reported statistics" are known to be manipulated for propaganda
reasons
People emigrating from Cuba or visiting Cuba, including international
health
representatives, have reported that it is in line with Cuban Government
policy to report mild cases of dengue as "influenza". Cuban physicians
have confirmed allegations that some disease reporting in Cuba is
politically
influenced (e.g., if dengue were declared wiped out, then physicians could
report the disease only as influenza-like symptoms). "
Also in 1997. Also apparently having no impact on Cuba's stellar reputation.
Post by PLin a post on dengue.
"WHO and the PanAmerican Health
Organization (WHO's Regional Office for the Western Hemisphere) cannot
report
to the world without clearance from the Cuban government."
See: www.promedmail.org Archive Number 19970627.1390
Michael Thiede is Senior Research Officer in the Health Economics Unit
of the Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care at the
University of Cape Town, South Africa. He writes: " Last year I spent
three months in Cuba. I am still motivated to put together some papers
on Cuban health care. Unfortunately, however, during my stay I was
only able to get hold of the official statistical data and find them
not especially trustworthy.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/wais/cuba_healthcarestatistics62202.html
You got your butt kicked but good on this one, Mr. Lobbyist! I'm surprised
you keep bringing it. You never seem to learn from your mistakes. I like
that about you.
Anyway, as Dr. T confirmed to me by e-mail, he was referring not to
mortality data, but to financial data. He is a health economist, after all.
He wrote:
"It's less data around morbidity and mortality where I see weaknesses
(actually the stats office seems to be quite rigorous), but the expenditure
data I find very obscure, especially in the course of time."
If you had the balls, you would write to him yourself, "Miss" Lobbyist.
(Don't hold your breath, folks!)
Post by PLA study was conducted among children from Havana City in order to have
information that may serve as a base
line for the further evaluation of children's food fortification with iron
and other nutrients. Two hundred and
eleven children aged 22-46 months and attending day care centers were
evaluated. The concentration of haemoglobin
was determined by the method of cyanometahaemoglobin, serum ferritin by an
enzyme immunoassay and serum
folate by an IMX analyzer. 28.4 % of the children presented values of
haemoglobin lower than 110 g/L, 41.8 %
had values of serum ferritin under 10 ?g/L and no child had deficient values
of serum folate. Fifty per cent of, the
anemic children had inadequate values of serum ferritin. A significant
difference was found between the means
of haemoglobin in children aged 22-35 months and those over 35 months.
Thirty-one per cent of the children ? 35
months and 24 % of those over 35 months had anemia. Deficient values of
serum ferritin were found in 45 % of
the children ? 35 months and in 38 % of the children over 38 months. The low
values of haemoglobin and serum
ferritin detected in this study suggest that the anaemia found is connected
with a deficiency of iron but not of folic acid.
http://www.sld.cu/revistas/ali/vol16_1_02/ali05102.pdf
[snip]
And just what does this prove???? Once again, we see what a truly desperate
liar you are!
Post by PLPost by Dan ChristensenWe are STILL waiting for even a single example of a Cuban being denied
medical treatment
False.
' Even the doctors serving in the government health agencies or ministering
to patients in clinics and hospitals are not informed about new technology
or medical breakthroughs, except for the privileged few the Communist
Party members, the privileged mayimbe class, who are allowed to travel
abroad or employed in the clinics serving the tourist industry
"sociolismo," the Cubans call it. '
Grasping at straw as always. Even if true (which I doubt), how does this
show that anyone was denied medical treatment? It doesn't, of course.
Post by PL"In "Cuba in Revolution," I mentioned the documented case of an ordinary
Cuban citizen who was denied medical care at the Cira García clinic for
foreign tourists.
You failed to follow up and determine whether he got treatment elsewhere.
You will have to do better than this.
Post by PLWe learn from Dr. Dessy Mendoza that such cases are the
rule rather than the exception.
He was the leader of a group of dissidents. And we know that many, if not
all such groups, are financed by the US regime expressly for the purpose of
overthrowing the Cuban Revolution. Mendoza was convicted of spreading false
news, issuing wildy inflated death counts early in an outbreak of dengue in
1997, probably to create a panic.
Post by PLFurthermore, Dr. Mendoza recounts the
difficulties of obtaining even those medications and treatments prescribed
for ordinary Cubans.
He cites cases of patients with cancer who cannot get treatment because the
medications have to be bought with dollars and not Cuban pesos! Yes, some
pharmacies, like the specialized clinics, are authorized by the government
to accept only dollars and are almost exclusively patronized by foreign
tourists and the mayimbe class with access to dollars. So much for Cuba's
revolutionary ideals of social justice and egalitarianism!"
Your beloved embargo coming into play again. As even UN Human Rights
Commission, in reports critical of Cuba, was forced to concede that, "It is
also impossible to ignore the disastrous and lasting economic and social
effects of the embargo imposed on the Cuban population over 40 years ago."
(SCC archives) Makes you proud, don't it, Mr. Lobbyist -- all that hard work
finally paying off!
Post by PLhttp://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/8/25/220915.shtml
Predictably, hospitals for ordinary Cubans have a dearth of the most basic
medicines and medical equipment to care for patients. Doctors have no
sphygmomanometers to measure blood pressure, sterile gloves, sterile water
for diluting injections, syringes, soap, disinfectants, and the most basic
items that one would expect in hospitals and clinics.
Your beloved embargo again.
Post by PLDr. Mendoza points out the most essential medical equipment is not
available, not because of the embargo but because of the misallocation of
priorities and a perverse system of tourism and health apartheid that has
developed in Cuba under the auspices of the communist (fascist) regime. As
we shall see in Part II of this essay, clinics that cater to tourists and
the privileged mayimbe class have the latest medical technology."
As this doctor must know, foreigners pay for their own medicines and
supplies. They are not depriving Cubans of anything. If anything, because
profits are used to susidize the national system, Cubans are actually better
off as result. This guy is clearly a propagandist with little interest in
disseminating the truth -- like you, Mr. Lobbyist.
Post by PLhttp://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/8/19/174145.shtml
" Los médicos cubanos se ven a diario ante la disyuntiva de informarse sobre
los medicamentos que están a la venta y cuáles se encuentran en falta, para
poder recetar a sus pacientes. A ello hay que agregar el déficit
instrumental médico y quirúrgico en policlínicos y hospitales, cosa que no
ocurre en los centros donde son atendidos los extranjeros, sin contar la
alimentación y avituallamientos necesarios que reciben, en comparación con
la de que se ofrece a los nacionales."
"Pero el traslado no se pudo hacer hasta las diez de la mañana por la no
existencia de una ambulancia especializada. Todos estos vehículos estaban
movilizados hacia el aeropuerto de La Habana en espera de enfermos
venezolanos que debían arribar para ser atendidos en Cuba. "
http://cubanet.org/CNews/y04/ago04/12a9.htm
Your beloved embargo again.
Post by PLThe medical apartheid system is very well known.
"Tourists have everything they need," said the pediatrician, who spoke on
the condition he would not be identified in any way. "But for Cubans, it's
different. Unless you work with tourists or have a relative in Miami sending
you money, you will not be able to get what you need if you are sick in
Cuba. As a doctor, I find it disgusting."
Another propagandist, it seems. Again, more consequences of your genocidal
embargo.
Post by PLIn 1993, when Havana began the tourism packages, officials sought to convert
Cuba's prestigious International Centre for Neurological Restoration, which
over the years had gained an international reputation for treating trauma
and Parkinson's Disease, into a tourists-only hospital.
But the hospital's founder, the internationally respected neurosurgeon Hilda
Molina, refused to comply with the government decision.
"There is a fundamental discrepancy," she said at the time. "I am not a
politician. I am a doctor. Cubans should be treated the same as foreigners.
Cubans have less rights in their own country than foreigners who visit
here."
Still nothing about any Cubans being denied medical treatement, not even
from this propagandist of yours.
Post by PLhttp://www.canada.com/search/story.html?id=512e6694-e9c7-4e97-99b4-e27fc98b59b4
http://www.futurodecuba.org/Cuba's%20biitter%20health%20pill.%20htm.htmOn
available doctors over 20,000 of them are rented out to other countries
creating problems in Cuba. One recent U.N. mission to Cuba found a clinic
in the eastern city of Santiago where 60 of the 140 staff doctors were
abroad, according to the Interamerican Dialogue, a think tank in
Washington. And it's not just a problem for Cubans.
In recent Boston Globe article on this subject:
"Many medical workers interviewed dismissed the criticisms as the gripes of
a spoiled population unaccustomed to waiting.
'''Before, there was a family doctor for every block or two of this city.
Now you may have to walk six blocks -- so what?' scoffed Migdalia, a
57-year-old nurse at a Havana polyclinic. 'It's still free and the quality
is the same, you just have to make an appointment nowadays or wait. . . .
Cubans can even get plastic surgery -- a free boob job,' she exclaimed, 'so
what are they complaining about?'
"Matilde, 56, a senior doctor in Camagüey, explained that 'before, we had a
doctor in every factory, every school, every preschool. They were frankly
underutilized. We've eliminated a lot of doctors at midlevel administrative
desk jobs, and it's probably a leaner, more efficient system now.'"
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/08/25/as_cuba_loans_doctors_abroad_some_patients_object_at_home/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+World+News
Post by PLhttp://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/14018330.htm >>
Even before the fall of the Soviet Union (that "sponsored" the Cuban >>
regime with up to 35% of it GNP - actually about what Cuba spent on health
Post by Dan ChristensenPost by PLand education) the Cuban people complained about bad quality and >>
corruption in the system.>> See the report of the communist party from
1987 reporting a poll made by >> the communist party in Holguin (the
famous "Boletin Especial" of which a >> verbatim copy was published by
CANF) revealed that out of 10,756 polled >> 87.6 were unfavorable "an
increase of 3% on the previous year. The >> "medicos de la familia" were
the best rated "only" 64.9% unfavorable.>> (Also quoted in Maurice
Halperin, Return to Havana, Vanderbilt University >> Press, Nashville,
1994, p.125-126.)>>>> In Cuba in whole cities (Santiago, Cienfuegos) often
no aspirin is to be >> found for the people.> > AIDS drugs are now
manufactured and freely available in Cuba. No doubt, > aspirins are,
too.Actually neither are available comrade Dan to lots of Cubans.
On the contrary. From Reuters last year:
Cuba fights AIDS with free drugs, not quarantine
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - When Cuba discovered its first AIDS case in 1986
among soldiers returning from Angola and Mozambique, alarm bells went off in
the island's Communist leadership. The virus was largely unknown and 300,000
Cuban soldiers who fought in Africa over a decade could have been exposed.
Authorities scrambled to test all military personnel that had been in
Africa, and quickly found dozens of cases.
HIV-positive Cubans, at first mainly heterosexuals but later increasingly
homosexuals, were shut away in a sanatorium, a controversial policy that
drew international criticism. Cuba stopped quarantining in 1993 and allows
people with HIV to stay at home after a course to teach them how to look
after themselves and not spread the virus.
Universal free access to locally made generic antiretroviral drugs has kept
AIDS cases and deaths very low, said the UNAIDS program.
Almost 20 years later, Cuba has one of the lowest rates of HIV infection in
the world, a prevalence of less than 0.1 percent of its sexually active
population. That's six times less than the United States and a big exception
in the Caribbean, the second most-affected region in the world after
sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS.
Cuba, a country of 11 million people, now focuses heavily on prevention and
will mark World AIDS on Thursday by sending out volunteers to distribute
free condoms on the streets of central Havana to encourage safe sex. Since
1986, only 6,782 Cubans have tested positive for HIV and 2,784 have
developed AIDS, with 1,314 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.
"The quarantine was very effective in stopping the first wave of the
epidemic that came from Africa, given the amount of people we had over
there," said Cuba's top AIDS expert Dr. Jorge Perez, a director at Havana's
Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute.
"Of course, it was painful for the people interned," he said.
PETS AND LOVERS
Cuba still requires mandatory HIV testing for pregnant women, blood donors,
army recruits, prison inmates and all adults with sexually transmitted
diseases. But at the Los Cocos sanatorium in a mango and coconut grove on
the outskirts of Havana, the 300 resident HIV patients are there because
they want to be. They live in bungalows with room-mates or their partners.
Pets are allowed, there is a basketball court and the food is better than in
the average Cuban household. Besides 24-hour medical care, Los Cocos gives
gay patients a refuge from Cuba's homophobic society.
"I've been here eight years and decided to stay. I have everything I need:
food, medicine, housing and the doctor right there," said Josue, 36, who
lives with his gay lover.
Another resident is Maria Julia Fernandez, an anti-AIDS health worker and
widow of the first AIDS case detected in Cuba, Reynaldo Morales. He was a
soldier who returned from Angola in 1986 and died at 45 after 11 years at
Los Cocos. Fernandez has lived with HIV for almost two decades without
developing AIDS and does not take antiretrovirals.
ANTIRETROVIRAL ARSENAL
When Cuba adopted its outpatient program for people with HIV in 1993, only
15 percent of the patients left the sanatoriums.
"We were surprised. We thought the sanatoriums would empty," said Los Cocos
director Rigoberto Lopez.
Mass testing allows Cuba to detect 80 percent of HIV cases in their first
year of infection, public health official say. The virtual absence of
intravenous drug use in Cuba has helped too. Cuba's big advantage in the
fight against AIDS is that its biotech industry produces six antiretroviral
drugs -- ZDV, DDI, D4T, 3TC, DDC and IDV, Lopez said.
"The manufacture of generic drugs brought an extraordinary turnaround in the
lives of people who live with HIV, giving them a better quality life,
clinically and psychologically," he said.
Deaths have dropped from 25-30 to 4 or 5 a year at Los Cocos. Cuba currently
treats 1,900 AIDS cases with generic drugs that cost the state $350 per
person a year, and will soon start producing protein inhibitors to replace
imports, Perez said.
Perez expressed concern about a steady increase in HIV-positive cases among
men who have sex with men, saying: "We have done a lot in controlling the
impact of AIDS, but we cannot sit back contented."
So much for your lies, Mr. Lobbyist.
Post by PL"A country unable to supply aspirin to state-run pharmacies reportedly has
11 biochemical plants, half of them dedicated to military use"
http://www.revistainterforum.com/english/articles/102701Artprin_en.html
Check the sources. Nothing but US propaganda that has been debunked here
time and again.
Post by PLneighborhood clinics and hospitals
serving Cubans are woefully short of supplies and equipment, such as X-rays,
antibiotics and aspirin. Women with difficult pregnancies are simply
encouraged to abort.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/may05/09e4.htm
CubaNet, Mr. Lobbyist???? Get real! This is nothing more than another US
government-funded propaganda organ.
And the author is head of a fantically anti-Cuban lobbying group in
Washtington, the ironcially named, Center for a "Free" Cuba.
Post by PL"MORON, Cuba - In this historic town of 70,000 people in central Cuba, a
small bottle of tetracycline costs US$5 and a tube of cortisone cream will
set you back as much as US$25.
But neither are available at the local pharmacy, which is neat and spotless,
but stocks almost nothing. Even the most common pharmaceutical items, such
as Aspirin and rubbing alcohol, are conspicuously absent. In their place
there is a neat display of green boxes of herbal diet teas from Spain.
One of the myths Canadians harbour about Cuba is that its people may be poor
and living under a repressive government, but they have access to quality
health and education facilities. It's a portrait encouraged by the
government, but the reality is sharply different.
Antibiotics, one of the most valuable commodities on the cash-strapped
Communist island, are in extremely short supply and available only on the
black market. Aspirin can be purchased only at government-run dollar stores,
which carry common medications at a huge markup in U.S. dollars.
This puts them out of reach of most Cubans, who are paid little and in
pesos. Their average wage is 300 pesos per month, about $12.
"My parents are really old and suffer from heart problems, and they need to
take an Aspirin a day, but even I have difficulty finding it," says Estela
(not her real name), one of the pharmacists who works at a small shop off
the main square, where school-children in maroon and beige uniforms sit on
park benches sharing snacks. "
A 72-year-old pensioner from Toronto who did not want to be identified also
said she had arrived for her recent vacation well- stocked with tubes of
antibiotic cream, Aspirin, decongestants and bandages.
"My doctor in Toronto told me that there is nothing available in Cuba, so I
came prepared just in case I needed any of these things for myself," she
said.
http://www.canada.com/search/story.html?id=512e6694-e9c7-4e97-99b4-e2...
More shortages due to your beloved embargo. You must be so proud!
Post by PLA man who works in the medicine warehouse in Cienfuegos, who asked that his
name not be used, said the reason there are no aspirins in the local
pharmacies is that lately the stocks have been shipped to Venezuela, Haiti,
and Perú.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/jun05/27e7.htm
Ummmm.... CubaNet again, Mr. Lobbyist???? And even if it where true (which I
doubt), it suggests that such a shortage is unusual and not the norm. Burned
again!
Post by PLNo aspirin in Cienfuegos' pharmacies
CIENFUEGOS, Cuba -June 22 (Luis Miguel González, Cubanacán Press /
www.cubanet.org) - Aspirins have disappeared from Cienfuegos' pharmacies in
the last few months.
Enrique Toledo, a resident of the Pueblo Grifo subdivision, learned recently
that there haven't been any aspirins sold in local pharmacies after he went
looking himself. He said he has to take aspirin daily for a cardiac
condition.
"If I don't find the medicine, my health will get worse," he said.
Toledo said that visiting several pharmacies, he was repeatedly told to look
for aspirin in the hard currency pharmacies, a suggestion he found
insulting, as he doesn't have access to hard currency.
A man who works in the medicine warehouse in Cienfuegos, who asked that his
name not be used, said the reason there are no aspirins in the local
pharmacies is that lately the stocks have been shipped to Venezuela, Haiti,
and Perú.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/jun05/27e7.htm
Ahem.... CubaNet????
Post by PLMakes you look like the lying fool you are, no?
Makes you look like one desperate propagandist, Mr. Lobbyist.
Dan
Visit my CUBA: Issues & Answers website at
http://www.netcom.ca/~dchris/CubaFAQ.html