>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >TALKING ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS > >� Health is one of the basic human rights >� Despite the U.S. blockade, Cuba > has indicators equal to those of developed countries >� Economic damages due to excess expenses > in this sphere total billions of dollars > >BY MIREYA CASTA-EDA (Granma International staff writer) > >IN the 1970s, the governments of the world meeting in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, >committed themselves to a program called Health For All in 2000. One of the >underdeveloped countries that has achieved the goals of that program is >Cuba. > >And this was accomplished, points out Dr. Carlos Dotres, Cuban minister of >public health, in the midst of a cruel and genocidal blockade that has been >imposed on Cuba by the United States for the last 41 years. > >Dotres spoke as an expert witness at the hearings in Havana related to the >lawsuit filed by eight social and mass organizations against the U.S. >government for economic damages. > >The minister began his testimony by emphasizing that health care is one of >the basic human rights, and that in Cuba this right has been seriously >affected by the blockade. Thus, Washington has demonstrated a double >standard in its pronouncements about Cuba, attacking it in international >forums for alleged violations of those same rights. > >Dotres made comparisons between Cuban data and indicators before the triumph >of the Revolution in 1959 and those existing now. He explained that in 1959 >there were 6,000 doctors, in private practice, 3,000 of whom left the >country that year, while today there are 65,800 doctors working in a health >care system which offers free, universal and equitable care. > >Another forceful example is that in 1959 the infant mortality rate was 60-70 >per 1000 live births, and today it has been reduced to 6.4, plus the fact >that Cuban children are now immunized against 13 diseases. > >Dotres gave an extensive description of the economic damage to the health >care system caused by the blockade and the epidemics deliberately introduced >into the country. > >Another aspect is the way the availability of medications has been blocked, >affecting the country�s capacity to treat cancer patients, children and >pregnant women. > >He also discussed how the blockade has affected surgery, a situation which >reached critical levels in the �90s, when 200,000 patients awaiting surgery >had to be put on waiting lists. > >Some programs to treat chronic illnesses experienced setbacks, including >those related to renal insufficiency, cardiovascular surgery, ophthalmology >and cancer, the latter being the second largest cause of death in Cuba. One >example of this is that in the �90s radiation therapy was seriously limited. > >Dotres specified the legal provisions of the U.S. blockade that affect the >population�s health, among them the 1961 Trading with the Enemy Act; the >prohibition of U.S. subsidiaries from selling products to Cuba; the >Torricelli Act, which promotes the brain drain; the Helms-Burton Act, a >piece of extraterritorial legislation which discourages foreign trade and >investment; and the Cuban Adjustment Act, which directly endangers the lives >of children, women and men. > >The expert report states that economic losses related to health total $1.715 >billion USD, divided into five categories: technology reconversion, $400 >million USD; deterioration of facilities, $300 million USD; obliging Cuba to >rely on distant markets, $165 million USD; increased prices, $550 million >USD; and reconversion of the pharmaceutical industry, $300 million USD. > >To this, Dr. Dotres added two diseases that have affected the Cuban >population as a direct result of the blockade. The first is the neuropathy >epidemic, which emerged in 1992, with more than 50,000 victims, and which >has been identified as being caused by vitamin deficiencies. To counteract >this epidemic, the state spent $295 million USD on medicines, equipment and >social security payments. > >The second disease was the hemorrhagic dengue epidemic in 1981, which >affected more than 300,000 persons and caused 158 deaths (100 of them >children) and required expenditures of $100 million USD. > >Dotres concluded by saying that Cuba is suing the United States for a total >of $2.123 billion USD for damages to health and health care. > >Biological agents: the CIA�s modern weapons > >No vital element seems to have been left out of the sphere of biological >aggression against Cuba. In order to destroy the economy, it seems that all >means justify the end, even when that implies harm to millions of people. > >In addition to human beings, biological warfare affects the environment, the >flora and fauna. Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment Rosa >Elena Sime�n concentrated on this theme in her testimony to the court in >relation to the Cuban people�s lawsuit against the U.S. government. > >Sime�n gave a chronological account of blights and diseases, introduced into >the island at the orders of the CIA, which have led to costs to the economy >running into the millions, and direct and indirect damages to the >population. > >In 1981, an outbreak of hemorrhagic dengue caused the death of 158 persons, >the majority of them children. The strain affecting the organism was unknown >to the world at that time. It was a laboratory modification of a disease >that appeared in New Guinea at the beginning of the century. But U.S. >government intervention did not end with the introduction of that epidemic. >The Cuban authorities had to ask the World Health Organization for aid to >acquire Abate, the only product that could combat the mosquito which carries >the disease. The assistance of that international agency was needed because >the United States had pressured the companies that produce and market the >chemical not to sell anything to Cuba. > >Additional costs implied by obstacles arising from the blockade on the >purchase of supplies for the national public health system are calculated at >30-40%. > >During the �80s, diseases affecting poultry and cattle appeared; in the � >90s, these spread to bees. Every time an agricultural activity began to be >developed, an epidemic would break out, the minister stated. > >She also explained how the blockade affects the execution of some >environmental projects on the island, for which funding cannot be obtained; >as well as the environmental stress provoked by daily tensions (in persons >and society in general), in part generated by an express will to block the >country�s progress. > >Moreover, Cuba is also deprived of the possibility of selling >biotechnological products to certain countries, like the United States, and >of importing medicaments manufactured by U.S. companies or those which have >their main offices there. > >Hygiene and health risks are included on the list of environmental factors >negatively affecting people�s quality of life. Obstacles derived from the >punitive policy against the island include city sanitation systems, due to >the impossibility of acquiring equipment, parts and fuel related to waste >removal. > >Further testimony presented by Jorge Ovies, M�ximo Mart�nez and Luis P�rez, >specialists at the Center for Plant Health, illustrated in more detail how >biological warfare has affected various crops on the island. > >Blights unknown to the continent or the island have decimated plantations of >coffee, sugarcane and rice after the premeditated introduction of injurious >strains. Luis P�rez, director of the Central Quarantine Laboratory, >explained to the court that the appearance of those exotic blights does not >respond to possible natural distribution patterns. Coffee bean borer, for >example, had hit various American countries, but the prevention program >against that disease existing on the island would have blocked its entry. > >This blight had affected coffee plantations in various countries, and for >that reason extreme measures were taken, including limiting the entrance of >coffee imports to the port of Havana, cargo inspections and disinfecting the >storage containers at the port. > >Nevertheless, signs the blight were discovered on the northern slopes of the >Sierra Maestra in February 1995, right in the heart of Cuba�s coffee-growing >region and outside the range of winds that could carry the disease. > >The 1997 blight affecting rice cultivations in the Nuevo Paz region of >Havana province is a further case. Rice seeds have to go through a two-year >quarantine period before being utilized in sowing; moreover, there are no >antecedents of the presence of the rice mite in the Americas, but only in >China and Taiwan. However, the disease did its damage in Cuba, resulting in >the loss of more than $20 million USD. > >Examples of crops attacked by biological agents are endless. According to >research and statements from persons recruited to introduce them into the >country, the masterminds can be summed up in three capital letters: CIA. > >Not even the bees > >AFTER expert witnesses had moved through the dry scientific vocabulary and >demonstrated the scope of the biological aggression which attacked the Cuban >agricultural sector in particular, only one graphic expression remained: not >even the busy bees were safe. > >The evidence was presented during the testimony of expert witnesses on the >afternoon of March 7, related to the Cuban people�s lawsuit for economic >damages against the U.S. government. > >Drs. Emerio Serrano, Manuel Toledo and Carlos Delgado, who work at the >Institute of Veterinary Medicine, presented a report on the damage to >animals due to artificially introduced diseases. > >They explained that the International Epizootiology Office, the central >agency in this context, has identified, in two lists, the principal diseases >affecting animals. List A includes 15 serious diseases, of which Cuba is >free of 14 (the other one is swine fever and is under control through >immunizations); and List B, with another 90 diseases, of which the island is >exempt from 61. > >The scientists made extensive reference to, and demonstrated the artificial >introduction of : African swine fever (1971 and 1979); bovine nodular >pseudodermatitis (1981); Newcastle�s disease, which affects poultry (1985); >ulcerative mammillitis in milk cows (1989); varroasis, a pathology which >affects bees (1991); and hemorrhagic rabbit disease (1993). > >The report relates the research undertaken in all those cases as to >potential sources of infection and determines that their introduction was >artificial; in other words, it was biological warfare. > >It notes how the diseases coincide with areas of economic growth, with the >objective�as the lawsuit affirms�of sabotaging food sources, blocking income >derived from exports and occasioning considerable losses. > >For example, the first outbreak of African swine fever was detected in >Havana province, where the country�s principal breeding centers are located. >This led to the extermination of more than 45,000 hogs, the slaughter of a >further 400,000 which could be utilized for industrial purposes, and >economic losses of over $10 million USD. > >Subsequently, due to a modified strain of the same virus (the animals had >been immunized against the classic variety), more than 900,000 hogs were >lost in 1980. > >Diseases affecting milk cows were detected in Villa Clara and Granma >provinces, and the rabbit disease in City of Havana, Havana and Matanzas >provinces, with more than 100,000 animal deaths and $2 million USD in >economic losses, without counting the effects on research centers which use >rabbits for experimental purposes. > >It was also demonstrated that varroasis, a parasitic bee disease, was >introduced in Matanzas in a criminal form, since its natural propagation >would have followed predominant winds (from east to west), and points of >infection appeared in an isolated manner, principally in that province, >Havana and City of Havana, which have 26% of their honey production destined >for exportation. > >Nevertheless, in less than three years, 80% of the country was affected. > >The judges also heard the ruling of expert witnesses Antonia Prieto, Raquel >Silveira and Mar�a del Carmen Rodr�guez, head researchers at the Fishing >Research Center, who covered ulcerative disease in trout, which commenced in >the Zaza reservoir, in Sancti Sp�ritus province, and extended throughout the >country, and worse, to other species like tilapia, being developed to feed >the population. > >One case of biological aggression claimed at the time was the introduction >of the Thrips palmi karmy insect. Evidence was given by witness Tom�s >Torralbas, co-pilot of Cubana Airlines� Havana-Las Tunas flight who, on >October 21, 1996, saw a U.S. aircraft spraying a liquid substance along the >Gir�n corridor, south of Varadero, six or seven times. > >Since its appearance, Thrips palmi has affected 17 crops in the contaminated >areas, including potatoes, beans, peppers, cucumber and squash. > >Overall, the material damage is estimated at tens of thousands of dollars >and, according to Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment Rosa >Elena Sime�n, who is also a doctor and virologist, the consequent human >suffering is impossible to quantify. >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >� Copyright GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION. >La Havana. 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