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CUBA: Not a Single Case of Swine Flu, though Ready to Successfully Fight the Disease

CUBA, April 30, 2009. There is not a single case of Swine Flu in Cuba, whose health system counts on all material and human resources to fight the disease and assist other nations, said health authorities during the TV and radio show “the Round Table” aired on Wednesday evening.

The country's epidemiological protection system will continue to intensify preventive measures as coordination work is being jointly undertaken by several state entities, particularly in schools, work centers and other social institutions.

Cuban deputy health minister Luis Estruch said that the country finds its strength against the disease in its own health system and in the organization of the Cuban people. He recalled that the country has wiped out 11 transmissible diseases, with another five under partial control, and that it counts on highly skilled scientists and free access to all medical services.

The Cuban official warned of the wide scope of the Swine Flu, which forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the alert level to five on a six point scale, and to call for the activation, in all countries, of plans to fight the imminent epidemic.

The Swine Flue or Influenza A H1N1 virus is currently affecting nine countries, while death caused by the disease have been reported in Mexico and the United States.

During the TV program, Doctor Ernesto Vicente Peña, a second degree medicine specialist, explained that the symptoms of the disease include aches and pains symptomatic of flu, such as fever, cough, muscular pain, running noses, and others. He called on the Cuban people that in the presence of any of those symptoms they should immediately see their family doctor.

For the past 48 years, Cuba's Civil Defense System has contributed to the mitigation of disasters, said Colonel Jose Ernesto Betancourt, chief of the risk reduction and management department of the Civil Defense. Colonel Betancourt referred to the epidemiological measures taken in the country as well as to the international sanitary control in air and maritime terminals.

Experts pointed out that the virus is not linked to swine, though it has been given the name of Swine Flue; it is transmitted from human to human, so the consumption of pork is not a danger, they explained.

Present at the TV studios during the program was Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera, member of the Political Bureau of Cuba's Communist Party and Minister of Health. (Cubaminrex- ACN)

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