How we benefit from Cuba
Source: Independent Online (IOL, South Africa), 15 July 2011.
- Cuba has freely educated and trained 264 South African medical doctors since 1998, with a further 400 currently still undergoing training in that country.
- Deployment of Cuban doctors to South Africa on an annual basis to assist in addressing shortages in rural areas.
Some 128 Cuban doctors currently work in South Africa - all with a good command of English as required by the Department of Health.
- Deployment of teachers and lecturers in schools and universities in South Africa.
- Deployment of Cuban health specialists, including surgeons, to state hospitals to plug the critical shortages due to the exodus of these specialists to other countries or the private sector.
- Future exchange programme on the cards to be included in the academic joint co-operation agreement currently in place.
- Expansion of training to allow South African doctors trained in Cuba to specialise in family medicine so that they can assist in preventive and primary health care.
Major differences between the two
- Medical universities offer only one curriculum while South Africa's medical school each has their own, with all having to meet requirements set out by the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
- Cuban medical students are not allowed to even touch a patient until their sixth year of study, while South African students are allowed that level of interaction from their third year.
- The Cuban approach is largely based on preventive care which is medical doctor based, while the South African system is largely based on the nursing profession.
- Cuba has eliminated a number of diseases through their public health immunisation programmes, resulting in a scarcity of diseases like TB and HIV. South Africa's rates are among the highest in the world.
Showing posts with label Cuba's immunisation program. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cuba's immunisation program. Show all posts
Monday, 8 August 2011
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Low tuberculosis rate in Cuba
Source: RadioRebelde
by: Laura E. Perez, 1 April 2011.
Translated by Pedro A. Fanego Sea, Havana, Cuba.
The tuberculosis bacillus has infected one third of the world population and two million people die every year for that cause.
The current rate in Cuba is seven per every 100 000 inhabitants. It is very low, due to the development of control and treatment programs, indicated Dr. Antonio Marrero, member of the National Group of Respiratory Diseases, under the Ministry of Public Health.
He indicated that some of the actions are early diagnosis, performed by means of bacilloscopy, tests and cultivation of patients’ sputum. Today, molecular biology has become an additional, brand-new tool.
In the eve of the World Day against Tuberculosis the specialist pointed out that Cuba is one of the Latin American countries on the way to eradicate this ailment as a health problem.
Since 1971, the strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for TB control is implemented in the country. It is known as direct surveillance treatment, where medical care and the required drugs are supplied to the patients free of charge.
The specialist explained that the disease main symptoms are respiratory, unremitting cough (for more than two weeks), associated to general symptoms like fever, anorexia, fatigue, loss of weight and night perspiration.
He also added that it is associated to AIDS, something that many call a mortal duet, because one accelerates the evolution of the other and both are related to immunodeficiencies.
Dr. Marrero remarked that tuberculosis becomes drug-resistant mainly as a consequence of partial or irregular treatments. Some patients fail to observe, what physicians strictly indicate to improve their condition.
Nowadays, there is no effective vaccine to prevent the disease. He remarked that BCG (Bacillus of Chalmette and Guerin), applied to newborn babies, protects them during 2 years from TB most serious forms, but it does not produce lifetime immunity.
The World Day against Tuberculosis is globally sponsored by the WHO and the International Union against Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases.
German bacteriologist Robert Koch discovered its causal agent, the tuberculosis bacillus on March 24 1882. As a result, he won the Nobel Prize in 1905. This was reportedly the first step toward the diagnosis and cure of the disease. Koch is regarded, next to Louis Pasteur, as the fathers of Bacteriology. He laid the foundations for contemporary medical microbiology. In addition, he was appointed head of the Hygiene Department of Berlin University in 1885. During this stage of university work, he discovered the first product effective in the cure of tuberculosis: tuberculin.
by: Laura E. Perez, 1 April 2011.
Translated by Pedro A. Fanego Sea, Havana, Cuba.
The tuberculosis bacillus has infected one third of the world population and two million people die every year for that cause.
The current rate in Cuba is seven per every 100 000 inhabitants. It is very low, due to the development of control and treatment programs, indicated Dr. Antonio Marrero, member of the National Group of Respiratory Diseases, under the Ministry of Public Health.
He indicated that some of the actions are early diagnosis, performed by means of bacilloscopy, tests and cultivation of patients’ sputum. Today, molecular biology has become an additional, brand-new tool.
In the eve of the World Day against Tuberculosis the specialist pointed out that Cuba is one of the Latin American countries on the way to eradicate this ailment as a health problem.
Since 1971, the strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for TB control is implemented in the country. It is known as direct surveillance treatment, where medical care and the required drugs are supplied to the patients free of charge.
The specialist explained that the disease main symptoms are respiratory, unremitting cough (for more than two weeks), associated to general symptoms like fever, anorexia, fatigue, loss of weight and night perspiration.
He also added that it is associated to AIDS, something that many call a mortal duet, because one accelerates the evolution of the other and both are related to immunodeficiencies.
Dr. Marrero remarked that tuberculosis becomes drug-resistant mainly as a consequence of partial or irregular treatments. Some patients fail to observe, what physicians strictly indicate to improve their condition.
Nowadays, there is no effective vaccine to prevent the disease. He remarked that BCG (Bacillus of Chalmette and Guerin), applied to newborn babies, protects them during 2 years from TB most serious forms, but it does not produce lifetime immunity.
The World Day against Tuberculosis is globally sponsored by the WHO and the International Union against Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases.
German bacteriologist Robert Koch discovered its causal agent, the tuberculosis bacillus on March 24 1882. As a result, he won the Nobel Prize in 1905. This was reportedly the first step toward the diagnosis and cure of the disease. Koch is regarded, next to Louis Pasteur, as the fathers of Bacteriology. He laid the foundations for contemporary medical microbiology. In addition, he was appointed head of the Hygiene Department of Berlin University in 1885. During this stage of university work, he discovered the first product effective in the cure of tuberculosis: tuberculin.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
50 years of immunisation in Cuba
50 years of immunization in Cuba: A revolution in health
• Tens of thousands of lives saved and disabilities avoided as a result of vaccination programs and campaigns
by José A. de la Osa
Source: Granma International
• HOW may lives have been saved, and aftereffects of illnesses avoided in these last 50 years as a result of Cuba’s mass immunization programs, today standing at 11 vaccines providing protection against 13 diseases which, together with other preventive programs have made our country at present free of 15 contagious diseases?
"Tens of thousands!" was the response to Granma’s question put to specialists Marlén Valcárcel and Miguel Angel Galindo at a meeting of Health, Epidemiology, and Microbiology professionals headed by Deputy Health Minister Luis Estruch Rancaño.
As officials in the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), they are responsible for the design, control and development of vaccination programs, undertaken by the Revolution as long ago as February 26, 1962.
That day saw the initiation, with popular support, of the first Anti-Polio Vaccine Campaign, which protected more than 2.2 million minors under the age of 15, equivalent to 30% of the country’s total population at that time. Some 70,000 members of the neighborhood-based Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, 1,000-plus Cubans within the National Association of Small Farmers and several thousand members of the Federation of Cuban Women.
The results were quickly visible: three months after the completion of the campaign, the last case of polio was reported in May 1962. That same year saw a vaccination program against five other diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, typhoid fever, and serious forms of tuberculosis.
The issue of immunization was of such magnitude to the Revolution when it triumphed on January 1, 1959, that Fidel, speaking at the inauguration of Havana’s Victoria de Girón Institute of Basic and Preclinical Science in 1962, stated: "How can the Revolution attack diseases? By preventing them through immunization against the types of disease that can be prevented via vaccination. And in this way we will set about fighting disease by disease, thus diminishing the number of epidemics, the number of victims. That will be fulfilling the larger objective of moving from therapeutic medicine to preventive medicine. In other words, avoiding citizens falling sick."
A brief synthesis (see Complete Chronology) demonstrates the colossal effort of a society that has struggled and is struggling for true social justice for its citizens. At the beginning of the 1970s measles became of part of the *immunization program: in 1982, German measles; in 1986, the triple viral against measles, German measles, and mumps; in 1988, meningococcal meningitis B and C; in the 1990s, the hepatitis B vaccine; and in 2000, immunization against type B influenza (an aggressive bacteria that can lead to death or consequences like as mental retardation and deafness in the early years of life) was included in the immunization program.
The Ministry of Public Health also administers other vaccines to groups potentially exposed to leptospirosis; influenza; rabies, both canine and human; and yellow fever, given to Cubans serving on international missions in regions where this disease is endemic.
At present nine of the 15 vaccines used within the immunization program are produced in Cuba, and the remaining six are acquired from pharmaceutical companies abroad.
The Cuban state directs $50 million per year into manufacturing, importing, and acquiring supplies to support the program, which is undertaken via 700 immunization centers throughout the country. •
Vaccination Chronology: 1960-2010
1960s
1962: Vaccination against polio and the triple bacterial vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough)
1964: Vaccination centers established in polyclinics for the regular immunization of the population. Immunization levels rise to average of 60%.
1968-69: Immunization campaign against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough; campaigns against tuberculosis and smallpox for minors up to 15 years in rural areas.
1970s
1971: Vaccination against measles for children from 6 months to 5 years.
1974: Community Polyclinics created and immunization levels increase to 75-80%.
1975: first National Immunization Campaign against tetanus for homemakers, covering 98%.
1976: Second tetanus dose for homemakers.
1979: In reaction to an increase of Meningitis A and C, three million persons immunized.
1980s
1980: Vaccination in schools against typhoid fever, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and serious forms of tuberculosis.
1982: Long-term strategy for protecting girls against congenital rubella (German measles) implemented. (The response to serious epidemics of German measles in 7-year cycles: 1967, 1974, and 1981). Girls aged 12, 13, and 14 vaccinated against German measles during the school year.
1982-83. In subsequent school years: 1983-84, 1984-85, and 1985-86, girls aged 12 immunized, so that by 1986 all females aged 12-17 protected, a total of 50,000-plus by 1986.
1984-85: Anti-tetanus vaccination campaign for the elderly. Third- and fourth-year medical students in a work-study program immunized 200,000 persons aged 60-plus.
1985: Tetanus booster for homemakers and senior citizens, 10 years after the 1975 vaccination program.
1986: As part of the strategy for eliminating the congenital rubella syndrome, an immunization campaign against German measles was carried out, reaching 600,000 women of fertile age (from 18 to 30 years), for a coverage of 75%. At the same time, vaccination of the entire population of less than 15 years with the triple viral vaccine (measles, German measles, and mumps) reaches more than two million people, with 96% coverage.
1988-90: The entire Cuban population under 20 years (close to 3 million) vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis B, the only such program in the world.
1990s
1990: Field tests for Hepatitis B vaccine begin.
1991: Meningococcal meningitis B vaccine included in immunization program.
1992: Hepatitis B vaccine included in the immunization program. More than 12 million doses administered. By 2010, the entire population under 31 years protected, as well as other high-risk groups.
1999: Vaccination campaign against Haemophilus influenzae B, for all children born since January 1998, plus those born in 1999.
2000-2010
2000: Vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae B included in the immunization program.
2004: Second dose of triple vaccine against mumps, German measles and measles for children in first grade.
2005: Tetravalent vaccine for protection against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and Hepatitis B incorporated in the immunization program for infants up to 12 months.
2006: Incorporation of pentavalent vaccine into the program, providing single-injection vaccination against five diseases, now including Haemophilus influenzae B.
2007: Campaign against measles, German measles, and mumps in the population aged 12-24 years, thus protecting one million-plus persons in that age group.
2010: Vaccination against pandemic influenza A (H1N1), during which more than one million persons in high-risk categories related to complications were immunized.
• Tens of thousands of lives saved and disabilities avoided as a result of vaccination programs and campaigns
by José A. de la Osa
Source: Granma International
• HOW may lives have been saved, and aftereffects of illnesses avoided in these last 50 years as a result of Cuba’s mass immunization programs, today standing at 11 vaccines providing protection against 13 diseases which, together with other preventive programs have made our country at present free of 15 contagious diseases?
"Tens of thousands!" was the response to Granma’s question put to specialists Marlén Valcárcel and Miguel Angel Galindo at a meeting of Health, Epidemiology, and Microbiology professionals headed by Deputy Health Minister Luis Estruch Rancaño.
As officials in the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), they are responsible for the design, control and development of vaccination programs, undertaken by the Revolution as long ago as February 26, 1962.
That day saw the initiation, with popular support, of the first Anti-Polio Vaccine Campaign, which protected more than 2.2 million minors under the age of 15, equivalent to 30% of the country’s total population at that time. Some 70,000 members of the neighborhood-based Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, 1,000-plus Cubans within the National Association of Small Farmers and several thousand members of the Federation of Cuban Women.
The results were quickly visible: three months after the completion of the campaign, the last case of polio was reported in May 1962. That same year saw a vaccination program against five other diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, typhoid fever, and serious forms of tuberculosis.
The issue of immunization was of such magnitude to the Revolution when it triumphed on January 1, 1959, that Fidel, speaking at the inauguration of Havana’s Victoria de Girón Institute of Basic and Preclinical Science in 1962, stated: "How can the Revolution attack diseases? By preventing them through immunization against the types of disease that can be prevented via vaccination. And in this way we will set about fighting disease by disease, thus diminishing the number of epidemics, the number of victims. That will be fulfilling the larger objective of moving from therapeutic medicine to preventive medicine. In other words, avoiding citizens falling sick."
A brief synthesis (see Complete Chronology) demonstrates the colossal effort of a society that has struggled and is struggling for true social justice for its citizens. At the beginning of the 1970s measles became of part of the *immunization program: in 1982, German measles; in 1986, the triple viral against measles, German measles, and mumps; in 1988, meningococcal meningitis B and C; in the 1990s, the hepatitis B vaccine; and in 2000, immunization against type B influenza (an aggressive bacteria that can lead to death or consequences like as mental retardation and deafness in the early years of life) was included in the immunization program.
The Ministry of Public Health also administers other vaccines to groups potentially exposed to leptospirosis; influenza; rabies, both canine and human; and yellow fever, given to Cubans serving on international missions in regions where this disease is endemic.
At present nine of the 15 vaccines used within the immunization program are produced in Cuba, and the remaining six are acquired from pharmaceutical companies abroad.
The Cuban state directs $50 million per year into manufacturing, importing, and acquiring supplies to support the program, which is undertaken via 700 immunization centers throughout the country. •
Vaccination Chronology: 1960-2010
1960s
1962: Vaccination against polio and the triple bacterial vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough)
1964: Vaccination centers established in polyclinics for the regular immunization of the population. Immunization levels rise to average of 60%.
1968-69: Immunization campaign against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough; campaigns against tuberculosis and smallpox for minors up to 15 years in rural areas.
1970s
1971: Vaccination against measles for children from 6 months to 5 years.
1974: Community Polyclinics created and immunization levels increase to 75-80%.
1975: first National Immunization Campaign against tetanus for homemakers, covering 98%.
1976: Second tetanus dose for homemakers.
1979: In reaction to an increase of Meningitis A and C, three million persons immunized.
1980s
1980: Vaccination in schools against typhoid fever, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and serious forms of tuberculosis.
1982: Long-term strategy for protecting girls against congenital rubella (German measles) implemented. (The response to serious epidemics of German measles in 7-year cycles: 1967, 1974, and 1981). Girls aged 12, 13, and 14 vaccinated against German measles during the school year.
1982-83. In subsequent school years: 1983-84, 1984-85, and 1985-86, girls aged 12 immunized, so that by 1986 all females aged 12-17 protected, a total of 50,000-plus by 1986.
1984-85: Anti-tetanus vaccination campaign for the elderly. Third- and fourth-year medical students in a work-study program immunized 200,000 persons aged 60-plus.
1985: Tetanus booster for homemakers and senior citizens, 10 years after the 1975 vaccination program.
1986: As part of the strategy for eliminating the congenital rubella syndrome, an immunization campaign against German measles was carried out, reaching 600,000 women of fertile age (from 18 to 30 years), for a coverage of 75%. At the same time, vaccination of the entire population of less than 15 years with the triple viral vaccine (measles, German measles, and mumps) reaches more than two million people, with 96% coverage.
1988-90: The entire Cuban population under 20 years (close to 3 million) vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis B, the only such program in the world.
1990s
1990: Field tests for Hepatitis B vaccine begin.
1991: Meningococcal meningitis B vaccine included in immunization program.
1992: Hepatitis B vaccine included in the immunization program. More than 12 million doses administered. By 2010, the entire population under 31 years protected, as well as other high-risk groups.
1999: Vaccination campaign against Haemophilus influenzae B, for all children born since January 1998, plus those born in 1999.
2000-2010
2000: Vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae B included in the immunization program.
2004: Second dose of triple vaccine against mumps, German measles and measles for children in first grade.
2005: Tetravalent vaccine for protection against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and Hepatitis B incorporated in the immunization program for infants up to 12 months.
2006: Incorporation of pentavalent vaccine into the program, providing single-injection vaccination against five diseases, now including Haemophilus influenzae B.
2007: Campaign against measles, German measles, and mumps in the population aged 12-24 years, thus protecting one million-plus persons in that age group.
2010: Vaccination against pandemic influenza A (H1N1), during which more than one million persons in high-risk categories related to complications were immunized.
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