Havana, Mar 16 (Prensa Latina) When Cuban president Fidel Castro said three decades ago that the future of the country relied on men of science, many thought it was utopia.

However, the present is a dream come true as the island commercializes over 40 biotech results and has registered more than 500 patents over the last 10 years.

In the field of health, diseases like meningitis and severe hepatitis, diphtheria, whooping cough and typhus have been eliminated in children below 15 years of age.

A strong network of 50 institutions supported by about 20 university centers, carries out comprehensive research programs.

Now the priority is to maintain its leadership in the anti-mengococcic vaccine, and improve the levels reached in the Colony Stimulating Factor of granulecytes, Erithopoyetine and Recombining Streptokinase.

Also in the interferons Alpha and Gamma, the Polychosanol (PPG) and the Transference and Epidermal Growth Factor.

There are several lines of research covering from the obtention of new candidates for bacterial vaccines until parasitical diseases like Chagas, leishmania and Amebas. Dengue, hepatitis A, tuberculosis and others are also included.

Strategic areas of new creation in biotechnology and modern science are related with the expression of proteins in plants, proteomic, bioinformatics and genomics are not left out.

Models to fight multiple sclerosis and diabetes are among the island´s efforts to preserve the health of its population. No doubt the vaccine against the Haemophylus Influenzae type B is Cuba´s most relevant contribution to modern science.

Until this date, attempts to make human vaccines from synthetic antigens had remained in the research phase.

Its inclusion in the National Immunization Program, covering all the country´s children, saved the national treasury two million dollars in imports.

On the other hand, the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) develops monoclonal antibodies and six out of eight Cuban vaccines to treat and prevent cancer.

Four of them, in clinical stage, are being tested in Cuba, Argentina, Canada and in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

The obtention of monoclonal antibody (AcM) HR3 for the treatment of skin tumours, applied to patients in advanced stages of head and neck cancer, is another significant contribution.

It is also thought its use in lung, colon and brain pathologies, can be viable taking into account they are derived from epithelial cells.

The AcM is already patented in the United States, Europe and other nations and it is the first generated by Cuban biotechnology for the treatment of cancer.

The CIM also has a monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of transplanted organ- rejection whose effect has extended the lifespan of many patients.

In multiple or combined vaccines, Cuba already has made available one with four functions that is part of the national vaccination system, while they are working in a five-function one, all to reduce the number of shots a person must take.

Most of the vaccines produced are part of the national inmunization program which for several years now protects 100 per cent of the children against 13 diseases. Ninety-five per cent of all the population is protected by this program.

In the AIDS treatment, Cuba has been applying for several years now the multidrug therapy with pharmaceuticals produced locally and which formulas are totally different to those existing in other nations.

The results? A fall in deaths and the improvement of life quality of the patients.