The facilities of Orfilio Pelaez Provincial Center of Retinitis Pigmentosa in the city of Holguin host the first comprehensive consultation in Cuba for the attention to people with the condition of Albinism. It was inaugurated this September 21 with the provision of Ophthalmology, Dermatology and psychological support services, areas that are affected in patients with this condition.
According to Iliana Pupo Herrera, Sociologist of this center, “reaching this achievement is very significant because it is a long time dream even in the midst of the complex economic situation faced by the country. It is significant for Holguin, Cuba and the world because of the working relationship we have with the Latin American Albinism Union and the Global Albinism Union, even with the independent expert of the United Nations Organization for the rights of albinos, Muluka Anne Miti-Drummond, who recently visited Panama and congratulated Cuba for what it has achieved in the care of these people.”
“It remains to work on the basis of prevention, that is why culture and public health have been united, the first helps us to work on acceptance in society and public health with the programs that already exist; but, for example, when an albino child is born there is no specific protocol to care for it, and work is already being done so that it is diagnosed as soon as possible.”
This consultation, which will be held on the third Thursday of every month, will join the Deafblindness consultation, existing since September 16, 2000, a favorable action that Anadelis Acosta Ramírez is grateful for: “for us the opening of this consultation is a great achievement, because going to a place that includes a skin specialist, an ophthalmologist and a psychologist to help us overcome the prejudices we have lived with is something wonderful”.
Daimarelis Rodríguez Batista, another Holguin resident with the condition of albinism feels grateful for the medical assistance of the wonderful team that welcomed her because she recognizes that she has gone through many traumas and taboos of society and to have the opportunity to meet this team of professionals interested in everything that affects their health is something great. At the same time, he considers that the deaf-blind, who suffer from retinitis pigmentosa, and albinos are one big family.
As both forms of presentation of albinism have manifestations in the vision, this specialty is not lacking in the integral consultation. In that sense, the specialist in Ophthalmology Aliuska Yanet Fernandez Mora explained that until now these patients had always been attended, but never before in an comprehensive consultation, and that is the achievement, that on the same day they can be assisted by three different specialties.
The community of people with the condition of albinism in Cuba, created in March this year in Holguin, welcomes around 200 Cubans in the whole country.
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