Mayabeque, Cuba: Cuba has been subjected to a fierce economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States of America since 1959, with serious effects on the Cuban people and the health system.
This blockade, imposed for more than 50 years, is the highest expression of a cruel and inhuman policy, lacking in legality and legitimacy and deliberately designed to provoke disappointment and discouragement through economic dissatisfaction and hardship, weaken economic life by denying it to Cuba money and supplies in order to reduce nominal and real wages, cause hunger, despair and the overthrow of the government.
The damage caused by the application of the blockade against Cuba in the field of health is unquestionable. This hostile policy hinders the acquisition of technologies, raw materials, reagents, diagnostic means, equipment and spare parts, as well as medicines for the treatment of serious diseases, such as cancer.
These inputs must be obtained in distant markets, on many occasions, through intermediaries, which impose an increase in their prices.
Cuban health is one of the spheres most affected by the United States blockade, but despite this, it has maintained services to the population and seeks solutions and alternatives to solve each difficulty.
The experiences acquired serve as an example to be better prepared and continue to face the effects of the blockade and the economic crisis that is occurring on the world stage.