U.S. blockade against Cuba also affects ataxia patients

HOLGUIN, Cuba, May 11 (ACN) The Center for Research and Rehabilitation of Hereditary Ataxias (CIRAH by its Spanish acronym), is one of the health institutions in the province of Holguin(eastern Cuba), affected by the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba.

The genocidal policy, imposed since 1962, limits the early diagnosis of Spinocerebellar Ataxia type II, a degenerative and incurable pathology, which concentrates in the eastern territory the highest prevalence rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 46 patients per 100,000 inhabitants.

These affectations are evidenced by the impossibility of acquiring a gene sequencer, essential equipment for the quantitative qualification of the damages caused by the pathology, said Dr. Yackeline Madrano, head of the CIRAH, in that province.

Due to the tightening of the blockade, she pointed out, prenatal diagnosis of mothers who are carriers of the gene is also difficult, in spite of which multiple family orientation actions are implemented to provide a better quality of life to affected patients.

Madrano indicated that there are also limitations to acquire supplies and reagents used in the follow-up of these people, which has a negative impact on their evolution.

In the midst of these limitations, CIRAH promotes a comprehensive rehabilitation program aimed at improving the sequelae of this disease, with therapies such as the practice of yoga and strict compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures, for which exercise routines have been adapted to the home.

SCA2 is a genetic, hereditary and incurable disease, which causes disorders in balance, gait, speech and can appear between two and 60 years of age and has about 900 patients diagnosed in Cuba, according to the website of the health care center.