CUBA , 14 March, 2007.- Cuba guarantees employment, job protection and medical assistance to people living with HIV-AIDS as a State policy that prioritizes human development. On the first day of the 2nd International Health and Labor Congress in Havana, some 500 delegates from nearly 40 countries heard experts from the island describe the attention received by the island’s programs in the field. During a panel on HIV-AIDS and Employment, it was noted that over 90 percent of those affected by the disease in Cuba have a job. As well, the island maintains a coordinated prevention campaign involving all pertinent government institutions and organizations. Angelica Moran Reyes, a specialist from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security training center, said resolution number 8 of the labor code states that all Cuban workers have the right to a job, including those who live with HIV-AIDS. They are also covered by social security law number 24. The legislation is part of a general system of social security and social assistance which together guarantee a dignified life for all citizens, said Reyes. Dr. Rosayda Ochoa, director of the National AIDS Prevention Center, related that people affected by the disease have the same rights as everyone to receive social assistance, and when they miss work for doctor’s appointments they receive their full salary. Cuba is one of the few countries that offer HIV-AIDS patients their medications free of charge and produced nationally, which has caused the rate of deaths from the disease to drop from 24 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 5 per 100,000 last year. Dr. Jorge Perez Avila, assistant director of the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute, said the generic drugs began to be produced on the island in 2001. He said their effectiveness has proven similar to other drugs produced by leading foreign companies. Perez added that over the last five years the medicines had reduced by 70 percent the more than 600 related opportunistic illnesses that affect HIV-AIDS patients. He pointed out that during that period deaths directly due to AIDS dropped by six percent, while the opportunistic illnesses that affect AIDS patients and can cause death dropped from 623 cases in 2001 to 152 last year. Avila said the six Cuban antiretroviral drugs satisfy the local demand and guarantees the triple-therapy AIDS drug cocktail to all patients needing it. There are currently 2,600. Cuba is among the 18 countries with the lowest HIV-AIDS rate at 0.09 percent and has the lowest in the Caribbean, Avila noted. By Iris Armas Padrino (Cubaminrex-Granma)
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