US, Cuba enter into historic collaboration to address health issues
The United States recently announced its plans to collaborate with Cuba regarding health issues, a historic step in the reconciliation between the two nations.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an agreement between the US and Cuba calls for “coordination across abroad spectrum of public health issues, including global health security, communicable and non-communicable diseases, research and development, and information technology.”
Cuba’s minister of health, Dr. Roberto Tomás Morales Ojeda, came to a two-day visit at HHS and signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the agreement with HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
“Cuba has made significant contributions to health and science, as evidenced by their contribution to the Ebola response in West Africa and becoming the first country to eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission,” Burwell said. “This new collaboration is a historic opportunity for two nations to build on each other’s knowledge and experience, and benefit biomedical research and public health at large,” she added.
US and Cuba “share an interest in detecting and responding to emerging infectious diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, [and other] serious mosquito-borne viral diseases,” such as the Zika virus, HHS said. “Both countries also have an aging population, necessitating an increased focus on responding to the increasing burden of neurodegenerative and non-communicable diseases, including cancer, which is the leading cause of death in Cuba and second in the US.”
The agency noted that several US health delegations have already traveled to Cuba, and that Cuba’s vice minister for public health spent a week at HHS in April. Cuba and the United States reestablished diplomatic relations last year after decades of animosity.
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