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=> Repercussions of the US blockade on the healthcare sector in Cuba

Repercussions of the US blockade on the healthcare sector in Cuba

Posted by Jeffrey (Guest) - Sunday, November 4 2007, 15:24:40 (CET) from 69.14.30.71 - d14-69-71-30.try.wideopenwest.com Commercial - Windows XP - Mozilla Website: Website title:

Repercussions of the US blockade on the healthcare sector in Cuba The most vulnerable sectors to the negative impact of the US blockade have been food and healthcare, having a direct impact on the quality of life of all Cubans. The vulnerable healthcare sector has been severely affected. During the past year the damage to the Cuban health service caused by the blockade in the period covered by this report is estimated at over 30 million dollars. Medical institutions that provide treatment free of charge to the entire population have been affected in several departments: emergency services, care of critically ill, surgical units and other specialized services (adult and pediatric), care of the mother-to-be, due to lack of access to latest-generation diagnostic aids and medication, mostly produced in the United States. Another factor is reduced ability to obtain 'Made in USA' consumables, spare parts and essential equipment. For the same reason, health promotion and disease prevention initiatives have been held back, suffice it to mention only a few examples: • Cuba's Ramón Pando Ferrer ophthalmology institute was unable to acquire equipment needed for studying the retina, marketed by Humphreys-Zeiss, and the drug Visudyne, used to treat macular degeneration (a medical condition that can result in blindness) among the elderly and marketed by Novartis. Both companies, being American-owned and not being licensed for the purpose by the US Treasury Department, expressed they were unable to export to Cuba. Studies of the retinas of the patients concerned were seriously affected, causing delays in decisions as to the therapy needed. • Other areas of Cuban medicine affected by the blockade include anaesthesia of children undergoing surgery. Cuba is cannot acquire the Sevoflurane inhalatory anaesthetic, patented with the trade name 'Sevorane', which has become the standard drug for administering general anaesthesia to children. The patent is owned by Abbot Laboratories, a US concern which, in compliance with the sanctions legislation, does not sell to Cuba. Cuba has no alternative but to use inferior substitutes, purchased in more remote markets at, consequently, higher cost. • For the same reason, the US Saint-Jude firm suspended, among others, its sales of prosthetic valves - cheaper and better quality - to the William Soler paediatric heart hospital. The patients affected are children with cardiac arrhythmia who need pacemakers that were obtained via this route. • US pressure has induced other firms to suspend sales to Cuban concerns, and in other cases involved the cancellation of licences. This happened in the case of Med Tronic, which was compelled to stop selling external pacemakers to Cuba, affecting children suffering from congenital or acquired arrhythmia who need this device. • A complex situation as regards disease-vector control in Cuba at the end of 2006 called for urgent purchases at a higher cost than would have been incurred if these supplies could have been sourced in the US market. The extra cost in terms of higher prices and increased freight charges totalled around $845,000 dollars. The following are some of the many cases in the public-health sector that illustrate the extraterritorial nature of the sanctions: • Following its acquisition by America's General Electric, the Finnish firm Datex-Ohmeda, manufacturer of excellent anaesthesia and multi-purpose monitoring equipment, with which Cuba maintained business relations, announced that it was banned from supplying equipment or spare parts to Cuba, on pain of prosecution by the US Department of Justice. • Cuba was prohibited from obtaining equipment and other products normally purchased by our Oncology & Radiology Institute from the regional division of Merck tasked with analytical chemistry, when it was absorbed by a US corporation. The results included repercussions on cancer and other patients. New York, 10 October 2007 --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

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