According to the latest Health Statistics Yearbook of Cuba, with data from 2022, during that period 370 new cases were detected (0.5 percent of the total number of diagnosed infants), and 137 patients died, for a mortality rate of 0.5 percent.

As explained to Cubadebate agency, by Dr. Carlos Alberto Martínez, head of the Cancer Control Section of the Ministry of Public Health, the survival rate of these patients with the oncology-specific treatment applied reached figures above 80 percent. “However, under the current economic conditions in Cuba, which make it difficult to acquire them, aggravated by a blockade that is intensified every day, which has forced the modification of treatment protocols, this survival rate has been reduced to 60 percent.

This is the greatest cost of this policy (US blockade) for the children who have had and still have to face cancer,” the expert affirmed.

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