Cuba fights on all fronts against Covid-19

The door-to-door of white blouses has not faltered for two months in Cuba. The inhabitants of the main cities of the island regularly receive visits from medical students or caregivers who come to inquire about their health, their daily activities and verify that they are applying the protective measures against Covid-19 . The masks are practically all made locally, as are the hygienic solutions intended for washing hands. And people who are experiencing the symptoms of the disease are invited to quickly go to the medical center in each neighborhood.

This detection and information work, also carried out when dengue fever strikes the island, is made possible by the importance of the health sector, a real pillar of the Cuban regime for almost 60 years. The authorities devote about a quarter of the national budget to it. This massive investment notably results in a very high density of the number of doctors on the island: Cuba has, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 82 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants, against 32 for France or 26 for United States. Medical research is also very developed there and the Cubans have launched several clinical trials to try to find a treatment against Covid-19, in particular by testing the effectiveness of an antiviral drug, Interferón, produced on the island and used since many years to fight against dengue or certain cancers.

"Health is an axis of development for the Cuban revolutionary government", explains to France 24 Nils Graber, health anthropologist affiliated with the University of Lausanne. The Cuban regime has made it one of its priorities, by setting up a system capable of adapting to the different epidemiological risks of the Caribbean region and of responding to the climatic events that regularly strike this island. Rooms fitted out in the event of a cyclone are thus currently used as places of quarantine for infected persons.

Food shortages

According to statistics from the Cuban Ministry of Health as of May 13, 1,810 people have been infected and 79 have died, a low figure considering the approximately 11 million inhabitants of the island. And for the past two weeks, Cuba has recorded more recoveries than new cases of coronavirus. "These figures, we give them very carefully, so as not to give the impression that the problem is already solved," insisted on Wednesday Doctor Francisco Duran, director of the Epidemiology department of the Ministry of Health, in charge of presenting the figures. every day on television. On the contrary, now "this is the most important moment, we must not let our guard down".

The authorities, who have banned all public transport, fear in particular contagion in the queues to buy food. They have grown considerably and multiplied in recent times, as noted by Jose Goitia, correspondent for France 24. "They closed the big supermarkets to replace them with multitudes of small shops by neighborhoods. There are queues at dawn , many resellers, prices have doubled or even tripled on the black market, "he explains. Food is running out and daily life is very difficult for this island which is suffering severely from the complete closure of its borders decreed on March 31, tourism being the real engine of its economic activity.

The resilience of the population has been verified many times since the advent of the Castro regime in the 1960s, during international crises punctuated by economic sanctions that hit the island hard. And the pandemic has not eased tensions between the Cuban government and that of Donald Trump. US authorities have announced that existing sanctions allow the delivery of "humanitarian aid" as part of the fight against the coronavirus, but Havana has announced that several countries have given up sending medical supplies for fear of reprisals .

Cuba's medical diplomacy

A source of tension has even rekindled between the United States and Cuba, linked to the dispatch by Havana of many doctors to the four corners of the planet. Sending "white coats" abroad to demonstrate medical excellence and solidarity has been a pillar of Cuban diplomacy for decades. But for US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, "the Havana regime is taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to continue to exploit Cuban caregivers. (...) Governments that accept Cuban doctors must pay them directly Otherwise, when they pay the regime, they help the Cuban government to profit from human trafficking. "

Mike Pompeo has thus relaunched the controversy surrounding the way in which Cuba benefits from the sending for decades of battalions of doctors abroad. Medical studies are free for Cubans and many of them then have the possibility of going to work abroad, on long-term missions or during health crises, such as in Africa to fight against Ebola virus. Since the 1990s, paying for the dispatch of medical personnel has been a priority for the Cuban State in order to maintain a certain international prestige and support its economy.

"The pandemic has enabled Cuba to maintain this system, which was under stress with the abandonment of certain collaborations," said Nils. In 2019, nearly 9,000 doctors had to return to Cuba after the expiration of their contracts in Brazil, Ecuador or Bolivia, thus depriving the regime of a considerable inflow of foreign currency. Many professionals were therefore able to resume service with the pandemic: around fifty doctors and carers arrived in Italy in late March. More recently, South Africa has hosted 216.

Cuba, Russia and China at the bedside of Italy https://t.co/qoW0ofTaL8 pic.twitter.com/sSrnHXdEef

In all, Cuba sent nearly 1,500 health workers to 23 countries. France should soon appear on this list since Cuban doctors are expected in Guadeloupe and Martinique. A decree published in the Official Journal in early April authorizes certain overseas territories to use foreign doctors in order to cope with the lack of health professionals. "It really makes sense with Cuban doctors because they have a very good knowledge of the regional context," notes Nils Graber. Scientific exchanges already exist between these French territories and Cuba and Cuban doctors are, in places, eagerly awaited.

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