Cuba: No Acute Hepatitis B in Under-5s

HAVANA, Cuba, May 11 (acn) Cuba has reported no cases of acute hepatitis B in children less than five years of age since 1999, a condition that starting from 2006 was also extended to the under 15s due to the results of the application of the vaccine against the disease.

According to Granma newspaper, the above was highlighted by Dr. Gustavo Sierra Gonzalez, director for scientific policy of the Group of Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries BioCubaFarma, while giving the inaugural lecture of the international meeting "World challenges of industrial property," organized by the Cuban Industrial Property Office (CIPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), under way until Thursday at Havana's Miramar Memories Hotel.
He also pointed out that the business organization currently produces 10 of the 13 vaccines administered through the national immunization program, which has eliminated in this way nine diseases and maintained five others controlled with extremely low incidence rates.
Dr. Sierra added that the vaccine against cholera developed jointly by specialists of the Finlay Institute, the National Center for Scientific Research, and the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute is in advanced stage of clinical trials, while Heberprovac against prostate cancer ends phase II trials showing good results of safety and efficacy.
He specified that BioCubaFarma closed 2015 with two 2,438 patent registrations, most of in the biotechnology sector, followed by medical and diagnose equipment.