by: George Anthony Nuarin

BSCpE 1-4 | CET

| Inspite of an embargo:
“A revolution is | Cuba’s cutting-edge medical field
not a trail of roses.…” - said Fidel Castro in his address in 1961 in the aniversary of the party. Two years
after the triumph of the Cuban revolution against the corrupt US-backed opposition, the government of the dictator
Fulgencio Batista. Two years after the vanguard party, the Movimiento 26 de Julio or July 26 Movement more commonly
known as M-26-7, a revolutionary organization led by Castro and Ernesto Guevara succeeded in grabbing the political
power. More than 5,000 people died from the civil war between them and the reactionary forces; indeed, it is not a trail of
roses. And even today, they are paying the dire consequences – the price of liberation.
After the revolution, US President Dwight David Eisenhower’s government refused to export oil to the island,
leaving Cuba to rely on the crude oil of USSR that the US-based companies in Cuba refused to refine. This forced the
Cuban government to nationalize all three American-owned oil refineries in the nation as response, without compensation.
The refineries became part of the state-run company, Unión Cuba-Petróleo. The rage of US is anticipated. The Eisenhower
administration launched an embargo prohibiting the selling of all products to Cuba except food and medicine. In April 1961,
the new Cuban government declared itself Marxist and socialist, and aligned with the Soviet Union. As a response, in
September 4, 1961 Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act which prohibited aid to Cuba and caused the complete trade
embargo against Cuba. Furthermore, the Torricelli Law of 1992 penalized foreign companies that do business in Cuba by
preventing them from doing business in the US. The US Government also indirectly banned Americans from travelling to
Cuba by pronouncing any kind of monetary transactions between Cuba and a US-citizen, even flight taxes, illegal. Without
having the abiliity to trade in a huge number of countries and states, made Cuba very poor and its citizens live in a
substandard conditions. But despite of this are the numerous achievements of a Socialist Cuba.
First, by investing heavily in education, Cuba completely crushed illiteracy in just years, and today according to
UNESCO statistics, it has 99.8% literacy rate, effectively 100% compare that to Philippines’ 94.8% and par from US’ 85%
(Huffington Post). Since the triumph of the revolution education is one of thr leading the interests of the movement.
Education is free in the island at every single level from elementary school to Ph.D. level. Another of their interestt is health
care. Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health
care of all its citizens. There are no private hospitals or clinics as all health services are government-run. Cubas citizens has
98% full immunization by the age of 2 years; antenatal care for 95 percent of pregnant women, and chronic disease
control, including at least yearly blood pressure measurements for almost the entire population resulting to child mortality
rates lower and life expectancy higher than US itself. Medical field is a popular choice among its citizen as a profession. In
fact, Cuba leads the world with the lowest patient to doctor ratio, 155:1, while the U.S. trails way behind at 396:1 (World
Health Organization data, 2011). With a surplus of Cuban doctors, Cuba helps other nations around the world. They have
medical missions in over 75 different countries lead by nearly 40,000 health professionals, almost half of them are doctors.
From 2009 data, they also educated through Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina, 70,000 medical students in all, more
than all medical school students of America that time. As of 2007, Cuba have performed over 750,000 eye surgeries
throughout Cuba and other nations, at no cost. Cuba helped in the medical crisis in Haiti due to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In 2014, Cuba sent 103 nurses and 62 doctors to help fight the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, the biggest contribution
of health care staff by any single country.
It can also be remembered the breakthrough of 2015, when Cuba became the first country to eliminate HIV
transmission from mother to child. And although it might still not be known, Cuba has developed a vaccine against lung
cancer and is undergoing human trials today.
Recently, on January 15th 2019, the National Cuban Science Day was celebrated in Havana with numerous
achievements and honors which highlight the scientific and technological development that support transformations in all
aspects of society. They developed new technologies of detecting Hepatitis B virus in risk groups, and new evidence of
resistance of Cuban anti-tuberculosis drugs, antibody for cancer, and more than 2,678 research, development and innovation
projects in 2018 alone. All of this still, under the trade embargo imposed by the US and its allies.
Despite of being thousands of miles away from the Philippines, the Filipino people somewhat has a strong sense of
empathy towards the people of Cuba, atleast presumingly, after knowing the Cuban history. Maybe, it is because of how in
the past both nations became victims of Spanish colonialism, and American imperialism. Cuba proved that being seen as
poor and helpless isn’t a hindrance in contributing to humanity’s progress. While it is undeniabe that we Filipinos are known
throughout the world and are recognized for things like pageants, sports, and their culture, we are yet to achieve our
contribution to the advancement of knowledge. Which leaves us the question, despite what they see us as economically third
world country, what scienttific breakthrough can we achieve? What will we contribute to humanity?
Sources:
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.A1444
https://www.socialmedicine.org/2012/07/30/about/cuba-leads-the-world-in-lowest-patient-per-doctor-ratio-how-do-they-do-it/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_medical_internationalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution
http://en.escambray.cu/2019/cuba-commemorates-national-science-day/
https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=37688&SEO=cuba-celebrates-science-day-with-several-achievements
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cubas-major-medical-achievements/story?id=43844344

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