Cuba, USA Sign for Medical Cooperation against Cancer
HAVANA TIMES – Medical collaboration entered into the agenda of the thaw between Cuba and the United States with the signing on Thursday of an agreement for cooperation in monitoring, evaluation and research against cancer, reported dpa.
The agreement was signed in the framework of the official visit to Havana by US Secretary of Health, Sylvia Burwell, who held a meeting with Cuban Health Minister Roberto Morales.
During their encounter, Burwell showed interest in the work of Cuba in cancer prevention and also “noted that joint training programs could be made.”
It was also announced that scientists from both countries will meet between on November 28-30 to exchange experiences on research related to dengue and zika.
Experts from both sides held a meeting Thursday at the Pedro Kouri Institute of Havana, the first of its kind between specialists from Cuba and the United States, which defined protocols for joint research for the next five years.
In December, a delegation of US scientists come to Cuba to participate in an event dedicated to the treatment of diabetic foot with the Cuban medicine Heberprot-P, unique in the world for that disease.
Health is one of the areas with the greatest potential for collaboration between the two countries, with the restoration of diplomatic relations in 2015.
Recently, the US government announced new measures to ease aspects of the economic embargo that applies to Cuba and which will facilitate joint medical research.
Other new measures include facilities for the export of Cuban medicines to the United States, provided they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
If Cuban medical scientists invented cures for all the major diseases and was willing to share it with the world, there are elements within the bowels of the United States — quite sadly — that would stringently oppose it and deride Cubans for their inventions and their willingness to share them. That, in essence, constitutes the anti-Cuban propaganda that has permeated the U. S., the world’s strongest democracy, since the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959. Of course, if that’s not so, I’m sure the anti-Cuba/anti-democracy forces can explain their reasoning in such a clear and precise manner as to weaken our love for democracy in favor of Batistiano-Mafiosi leanings.
Does anyone else think that this is a bit crazy? Part of any health program has to be access to a decent diet, which is simply not the case for many, many Cuban citizens. I am the first to accept that the diet of many Americans is shocking but at least relatively speaking, fresh fruit and vegetables, are affordable. Cooperation in monitoring would only make sense if both populations were comparable. Which they are not, though I guess that as a generalisation, both populations have in their own way less than desirable diets. Frankly, I can smell big pharma and other medical
companies crawling all over this.
This day will go down in history, as the moment in which the United States and Cuba agreed to bury their swords and turn them into plowshares on behalf of humanity.
Few people who lived through decades of fear, hunger, suffering, death and destruction could every believe this day was possible, when good prevailed and conquered over hate.
This signing ceremony reaffirm my faith -even if I am not around to see it- that GITMO with its infamous history of crimes, torture, death, contamination and defiance, will someday become the beacon of peace, love and harmony in our hemisphere and the world.
Consider the US returning GITMO intact to the Cuban government, pays its century old dues, perform a massive environmental remediation at the bombing range and agree to jointly operate, what can become the largest Medical Center, Neurological Restauration Institute, Medical School, Environmental Research and Tropical Research Institute in the world.
Tens of thousands of Cuban physicians and scientists doing menial jobs around the world, who migrated mostly in search of a better life and future for their families, can find a dignified professional opportunity on/or around GITMO, enabling them to fulfill their Hippocratic oath and become scientists and loving caregivers as they wanted to be.
Skeptics will ask where the operating funds will be coming from, to which I say, think about the millions of dollars that are wasted every day on nuclear weapons storage which will never be used, sophisticated submarines, fighter bombers, aircraft carriers and tanks and other obsolete weoponry in today’s asymmetrical wars, which will end only with love, respect, equality, education and healthcare, not with land grabbing, abuse and hate.