Cuban medical university fosters project for skin cancer prevention

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, Nov 14 (ACN) The University of Medical Sciences (UCM) of Cienfuegos(central Cuba) is promoting the international development and innovation project Distintivo Soludable Cuba, a research on the promotion of photoprotection and prevention of skin cancer.

Led by the University of Granada (UGR), Spain, and with the support of the National University of Chimborazo, Ecuador, the initiative is financed by the Andalusian Agency of International Cooperation for Development, in addition to the collaboration of Medicus Mundi Sur and the Sodepaz organization.

The objective is to measure the knowledge of the staff and students from first to fifth year of the university, in order to raise the culture of photoprotection to prevent skin carcinoma, said Dr. Marlene Curbelo Alonso, head of the Dermatology Service of the Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia Lima General Hospital and coordinator of the program in the territory, to the Cuban News Agency.

She said that another purpose of that strategy is to declare the Cienfuegos institution as a certified center for the prevention of that disease, which would make it the first in the Caribbean Island and the second in Latin America with that distinction.

Through Soludable, in operation since February this year, the Spanish scientific entity offers training stays to professors of the University of Medical Sciences of Cienfuegos in nursing care and in the improvement of quality management on photoprotection and prevention of malignant melanomas, Curbelo Alonso added.

Likewise, she mentioned, we received dermatoscopes ─used in the early diagnosis of the disease─, material for surgical surgeries, for example, scissors, dies and needles; or resources such as laptops, telephones for data recording, the promotion of activities and university extension with the research of future doctors in health areas.

According to the World Health Organization, between 50 and 90 % of skin carcinoma is caused by excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation, while 80 % of the cases could be avoided with healthy protection habits.