In an interview to that newspaper, one of the foremost in Italy, the diplomat reaffirmed that relations between Cuba and Italy “are characterized by respect and solidarity,” as proved by the Cuban healthcare aid to this nation during the worst peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The presence of two brigades of the Henry Reeve International Medical Contingent in the northern cities of Crema and Turin in 2020, laid the foundations to boost collaboration with this country in healthcare matters, Granda recalled.
Cuba’s current medical aid to the southern region of Calabria “shows that cooperation between States with different political systems, but united by common interests such as guaranteeing the population’s right to life and health is possible,” the diplomat noted.
The ambassador explained that after a year of work, in late December 2023, the Cuban specialists had made 104,520 medical visits, 64,965 of which were in hospitals, with 4,737 in internal medicine; 3,944 in pediatrics, 3,296 in gynecology and obstetrics, and 2,878 in general surgery.
Add to them 13,355 in orthopedics, 2,619 in intensive medicine, 7,931 in cardiology and 795 in physiatry, in addition to 7,103 surgeries, 2,190 of which were performed on elderly patients and 4,913 on minors, among many other services.
The diplomat noted that in terms of diagnostics, 12,993 X-rays were taken, as well as 7,524 high-tech tests (mammography, computerized tomography and magnetic resonance), 9,249 electrocardiograms, 3,230 echo-cardiograms and 5,344 ultrasound scans.
Those data, according to the head of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Italy, “only confirm Cuba’s political willingness to continue to offer its collaboration to Italy and to the countries worldwide that need it to safeguard human lives and protect the right to health.”
Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, free health care to the population and aid to other peoples have been priorities, and by 2024, despite Cuba’s difficult situation as a victim of the economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States, 26 percent of the budget is allocated to health care.
“The work of Cuban doctors and their collaboration abroad is conducted respecting the principles of altruism, humanism and international solidarity enshrined in Article 16 of our Constitution,” the Cuban ambassador pointed out.
jg/omr/rgh/ort
