Providing free medical attention to the Cuban population became one of the revolutionary government’s basic social pillars from the time it assumed power.

Before the Revolution, health and hospital care were mainly privately or provided to members of mutual societies. Medical facilities and personnel were mostly to be found in Havana where 65% of doctors and 62% of hospital beds were concentrated. There were virtually no medical services in rural areas, where nearly half of Cuba's population lived, and there was only one rural hospital that had only 10 beds and no doctors.

The percentage of people suffering from parasites was high (36.10%) as was that of those suffering from tuberculosis (13.99%), typhus (13.25%) and malaria (30.03%). Infant mortality was over sixty deaths per one thousand live births and life expectancy was only about 58 years. State health service was less than adequate and only 8% of the population obtained free medical attention.

After the triumph of the Revolution, public health services in Cuba showed an impressive level of development in successive stages.

1960. Creation of the National Health System. Creation of rural medical services. Creation of health areas and polyclinics. Vaccination with the involvement of the population.

1970. Decentralisation of teaching and of the health sector, delegation of responsibility to the provinces. Initiation of Mother and Child Programme

1980. Creation of the Family Doctor Programme. Introduction of advanced technologies. Fast track development of the medico-pharmaceutical industry.

1990 Introduction and development of science and technology’s achievements. Withstanding the double whammy of the U.S. blockade and the collapse of socialism in eastern Europe and the USSR.

2000 The stage when the system was consolidated, reformed and modernised. Increased participation by the community in health measures and actions.

2002 to date. New programmes to put advances in medical care into practice. Development of polyclinics as centres of the highest quality primary medical care. Repairs to doctors offices and to polyclinics. Fast track training course for nurses.

Cuba’s achievement in the field of health mean that ever since 1983 it has more than met the requirements of Health for Everyone agreed to in the context of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

However, currently far reaching transformations to health services are underway in order to go beyond what we have already achieved. One of the most important of these is a programme to bring services closer to the population, the extensive retraining programmes for medical personnel —at the beginning of 2003 there were 34,451 people registered in this— and the continued development of pharmaceutical drug production.

In order to be able to execute these transformations and to continue improving the quality of medical services, the state budget allocated 2,270 million pesos for this key area.

Some of the Cuban public health’s achievements in the last ten years can be summarised as follows:

67% of the medicines the country need are domestically produced

Programme for pre-natal diagnosis of congenital diseases. This has helped to prevent the birth of more than four thousand children with congenital deformities

Medical genetics programme to reduce Down Syndrome and other diseases

Improvement of intensive pre-natal, paediatric and adults therapies

Increase in the number of organ transplants performed

Discovery of the group B anti-meningococcus vaccine, the only one of its kind in the world

Production of Hepatitis B Vaccine

Discovery of PPG (atheromix), first choice therapy for treating high cholesterol, the major contributing factor to coronary risk

Decrease in the number of cases of cancer in the advanced stage and an increase in the survival rate. Production of monoclonal antibodies for cancer treatment. Manufacture of vaccines against the disease.

More exact classification of leukaemia and its treatment

Cure or control of retinitis pigmentosa

Production of melagenina, a pharmaceutical obtained for human placenta and used for treating vitiligo.

Production of high-quality, low-cost medicines.

Manufacture of equipment such as Neuronica (used for monitoring during operations), the Medicid (digital electroencephalogram), the Ozomed (for ozone therapy treatment) and SUMA (Unilateral Micro-Analytic System)...

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