CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Top Priority for HIV-AIDS Patients in Cuba

Cuba, 8 April 2011.- The director of the National Center for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV-AIDS, Rosaida Ochoa, affirmed on Wednesday in the eastern province of Holguin that patients suffering from HIV-AIDS are a top priority for the Cuban health system.

Ochoa told ACN that Cuba has succeeded in improving the quality of life of these patients by keeping them under observation in their own communities, where they receive free of charge health care.

The specialist explained that carrying out prevention campaigns is one of the most effective steps for controlling this disease, declared pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

She noted that Cuba is making serious efforts to control the disease, and for this purpose it has established joint strategies among different social sectors like education, culture and the media, in addition to reinforcing the prevention work with groups of people over 25 years old.

Ochoa pointed out that Cuba has reported 14,000 HIV-AIDS cases since 988 up to the present day, with higher incidence in Havana and among the male population.

The specialist, who is participating in the Fourth International Congress on Health and Quality of Life underway in Guardalavaca beach, in the eastern province of Holguin, affirmed that although this disease has slow growth rates in Cuba, prevention is the key element.

Health promoter Waldemar Reyes said that in Cuba more than 99 % of the cases diagnosed with this disease got infected through sexual intercourse while transmission through blood and other derivates, and from mother to child, were eliminated as health problems. (Cubaminrex-AIN)

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