New York, 30 September 2019. The damage caused by the implementation of the blockade against Cuba in the healthcare sector is undeniable. This hostile policy hinders the acquisition of technologies, raw materials, reagents, diagnostic aids, equipment and spare parts, as well as medicines for the treatment of serious diseases such as cancer. These consumables must be bought in faraway markets, often through intermediaries, and this necessarily increases their prices.
Between April of 2018 and March of 2019, losses to the Cuban healthcare sector amounted to 104,148,178 dollars, a figure exceeding that of the previous year by 6,123,498 dollars.
During the same period, the Cuban company importing and exporting medical products, MEDICUBA S.A., sent out requests to 57 U.S. companies in order to buy the consumables needed for our health system. To date, 50 of these companies have not responded.
Three other companies --including PROMEGA CORPORATION, a manufacturer of enzymes and other products for biotechnology and molecular biology, which was contacted to buy reagents and consumables used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases-- have alleged that, due to the blockade regulations, they are not authorized to sell any medicine or equipment to Cuba.
There are plenty of heartbreaking examples of how the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against Cuba threatens the health of the Cuban people, which is tantamount to violating their right to life.
Due to the blockade, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc. cannot sell Cuba the Sunitinib drug, the only existing effective medicine in the world for the treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cancer.
On 26 February 2019, several suppliers informed MEDICUBA they were unable to deliver the contracted pulmonary ventilators due to the fact that the manufacturers IMT MEDICAL AG and ACUTRONIC had been bought by Vyaire Medical Inc, a company headquartered in Illinois, USA. The pulmonary ventilators are of outmost importance for the Cuban health system, since they are used to mechanically assist patients when spontaneous pulmonary ventilation put their lives at risk.
The prestigious Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) received a negative answer from the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare when they requested access to funds for projects offered by this British institution. The Federation expressed that, due to the sanctions imposed on Cuba by the United States, they were unable to make financial transactions to the Island.
In the period analyzed, Cuban health professionals were unable to participate in meetings, scientific events and academic exchanges held in the U.S. This was due to the fact that visa applications by Cuban doctors were refused or issued after the dates of the events.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations