By Mabel Guerra García

Camagüey City (Prensa Latina News Agency), - According to the population count held among 1943 and 1951 in this Cuban province, more than 38 thousand people died victims of curable diseases, the main death causes at that time.
The greatest amount were caused by pneumonia, fever, parasitism, malaria and tuberculosis: the palpable results of the poor sanitary situation existing at the time since most of them have disappeared and the rest are effectively controlled due to the preventive health care labor.

The project launched by the revolutionary government in 1959 embraces all Cubans with free medical care, emphasizing primary health care, which determined a change in life expectancy horizons.

On the road to survival

The greatest Cuban province, located in the eastern section of the country, had one of the lowest percentages of doctors per inhabitants and a seriously deteriorated health care infrastructure despite being the home of rich cattle raisers.  
In 1958 there were only seven hospitals, none of them in a rural area, a home for elder people and a paramedic school.

Nowadays there is a net of technical institutions for adults and kids including social and health care assistance as well as pharmaceutical and optic service.

A population of more than 786 thousand inhabitants get the benefit of primary health care through the doctors assigned to their communities even in the more far away locations which represent a great stability concerning sanitary promotion, prevention, timely treatment and rehabilitation.

There are approximately five thousand doctors working on the family program in the province, it includes nursery service and, soon, dentistry. There is a doctor every 159 inhabitants.
The infant mortality rate is lower than five every one thousand born-alive children, close to the national average (4.7) one of the lowest in the world.
Such an accomplishment was made thanks to important therapeutic reforms introduced to assist low-weight infants, advanced genetic programs as well as immunization to 13 diseases, affirmed Gustavo Ferrer, Headmaster of the Infant-Mother Program (PAMI) in Camagüey.

This province is regarded as the sixth older in the Island; life expectancy reaches 80 years for women and 76 for men.

Elder people represent the 16.3 per cent of the population and there is a system of constant monitoring in the community to enhance their quality of life.

Elder People University is a valuable resource in the region considering that one out of four inhabitants will be over 60 by the year 2025.

Several medical services are considered as top quality services taking into account the equipment available and the qualification of specialists.

Patients with leaver diseases mortality rate was only around 14 per cent, the same as in highly developed countries like Spain and The US.

Almost 15 thousand Venezuelan, Caribbean and local patients undergone eye surgeries since 2005. Several other Health Care programs have been established like rehab centers, interventionist cardiology, homeopathy, urgency, traditional medicine as well as assistance to VHI/AIDS patients and a net of mental health centers which confirm the potentialities of the region.

Doctors at the service of Humankind

Since its foundation in 1968, the Medical School has surpassed the number of 15 thousand graduates.

Medical University Carlos J. Finlay hosts hundreds of foreign students from 36 countries, including those from the Latin American Medicine School.

Some 3 thousand doctors and technicians from Camagüey help to ease the lives of millions of people in more than 47 nations.

It is a relevant homage to the universally recognized scientist Carlos J. Finlay (1833-1915), born in these lands, who discover yellow fever transmitter and whose relevant research also helped to cure dengue and malaria.

Fidel Castro affirmed in 1981 that our country will become into “a world center of first class health care and a medicine power”, it’s been fully attained.

Translated by Luis Viamontes
Adelante Online