Cuba at the vanguard in the fight against HIV/AIDS

 

HAVANA, Cuba, May 7 (ACN) Cuba is ready to cooperate, as much as possible, in the global fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, assured first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the country, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, when welcoming Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), at the Palace of the Revolution.

It is our greatest wish, stressed the head of state, that during her mandate at the leadership of this important program "we can make progress in the global attention to this disease, and we are sure that because of her interest, commitment and dedication, we will take steps forward in that direction".

Diaz-Canel explained to the official several issues associated with the Strategy implemented by Cuba to deal with this scourge. It is a strategy, he said, that is "based on social prevention, putting people living with HIV/AIDS at the center of attention".

He stressed that Cuban program has a community and intersectoral approach, involving all the entities, agencies, organizations and ministries that have a role to play in the prevention or treatment of the disease.

Likewise, the President explained, it has a multidisciplinary projection, taking into account the experience of a wide range of knowledge and everything that can be contributed from science and innovation.

After mentioning how the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States Government on the Island and the inclusion of our country in the list of alleged State sponsors of terrorism affect the functioning of the National Health System, the President of the Republic told the Executive Director of UNAIDS that in the midst of "the difficult economic situation we are facing, we continue to strengthen our Program for the care of people living with the disease, which is a comprehensive and free program".

President Diaz-Canel also spoke to the UN official about the politicization that has been made on this issue and the essential battle against pharmaceutical transnationals, because it is not possible that economic profits are above people's health.

In this regard, he commented on medicines produced by the Cuban Biopharmaceutical Industry that could be useful in several regions of the world and that it is very difficult to commercialize them, due to the competition of transnational companies, which are not interested in keeping people healthy, but simply in selling their treatments.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, considered it a "great honor" to " be in Cuba and to be received by the President of the Republic".

Cuba, she valued, "has been at the forefront in the fight against this disease despite the economic difficulties" and since "four years ago I started in this responsibility I always wanted to visit Cuba to learn more about their work".

In this respect, she recalled that in 2015 Cuba was "certified as the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and congenital syphilis," a condition that was recently joined by three other Caribbean nations.

"And I have also come to Cuba to learn more about its Health model, whose experiences it also shares with other nations of the world, in the midst of a context in which, unfortunately, health is increasingly commoditized, fragmented and privatized," she added.

During the meeting, which ratified the island's will to continue defending health as one of the most vital human rights, Cuban president was accompanied by the Minister of Public Health, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, and deputy foreign minister Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo.
The UNAIDS Executive Director was also joined by Ms. Luisa Cabal, UNAIDS Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.