Amid the current oil embargo, the country guarantees care for the more than 3,000 patients who need hemodialysis. Photo: Taken from the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP)

Health Minister Denounces the Energy Blockade

Dr. José Ángel Portal Miranda, Cuba’s Minister of Public Health, denounced the economic, commercial, and financial blockade. Aggravated by the energy siege imposed by the United States government. As a “criminal blockade that threatens life itself,” directly affecting medical care and basic human security.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Cubaminrex, Portal Miranda stated in the Mexican newspaper El Heraldo. That “the unjust inclusion of Cuba on the list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism. Coupled with the persecution of commercial contracts to acquire fuel and the harassment of ships. It has generated pressure that transcends the economic sphere and enters the realm of basic human security.”

According to official data, the surgical waiting list has reached 96,387 patients, including 11,193 children. These figures are increasing due to the need to postpone non-urgent surgeries. To prioritize cancer and other life-threatening procedures.

The Maternal and Child Health Program faces the challenge of providing diagnostic ultrasounds to 32,000 pregnant women. While fuel shortages have hampered refrigerated transport. Hindering the timely vaccination of more than 30,000 children.

The head of the sector specified that 16,000 radiotherapy patients and another 2,888 hemodialysis patients depend on services that require energy stability. Also which is currently very difficult to guarantee.

“Behind these numbers are suffering patients and families waiting for solutions that are sometimes delayed, or never arrive. Due to external factors,” Portal Miranda stated in the Mexican media.

Moreover the minister emphasized that, despite limitations, the National Health System is not in a state of collapse. Rather undergoing strategic reorganization, strengthening Primary Care, the Family Doctor and Nurse Program, and the use of telemedicine.

Portal Miranda highlighted that “this capacity to respond rests on the altruism, ethics, commitment, and professionalism of Cuban human capital.” Which faces the same shortages as the rest of the population and transforms challenges into motivations to seek alternative solutions.

The official expressed gratitude for the international solidarity received and emphasized the support of the Mexican people and government. While reiterating that “Public Health is a fundamental human right. Also which should not be conditioned by political disputes or by the use of energy as an instrument of coercion.”

“When energy is lacking, it is extremely difficult to maintain essential services. And when that happens, it is the people—especially the most vulnerable—who bear the negative impact. And pay the price for the resulting stress,” he stressed.

Cuba will continue to adopt measures to protect its population and called on the international community to show its solidarity in the face of the US policy of strangulation.

With information from CNA

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