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posted by janrinok on Wednesday July 01 2015, @08:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the they-are-thinking-of-the-children! dept.

The BBC reports

Cuba has successfully eliminated mother-to-child transmission of both HIV and syphilis, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. The head of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, called it one of the greatest public health achievements possible. It follows years of efforts to give pregnant women early access to prenatal care, testing and drugs to stop these diseases passing from mother to child.
...
In Cuba, according to the available official data, less than 2% of children whose mothers have HIV are born with the virus - the lowest rate possible with the available prevention methods.

Untreated, they have a 15-45% chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding.

Kudos to Cuba!


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by M. Baranczak on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:06PM

    by M. Baranczak (1673) on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:06PM (#203976)
    The Cuban government employs all the doctors, and all the people who collect the health statistics, and all the people who might try to audit the statistics. And the government is not answerable to anyone. The real question is: why the fuck would anyone trust their numbers?
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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:15PM (#203980)

    But we should trust the US government, right?

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by edIII on Wednesday July 01 2015, @11:05PM

    by edIII (791) on Wednesday July 01 2015, @11:05PM (#204004)

    While you bring up a good point, in the ol' US of A, numbers have been flat out ignored by Big Pharma for greater profits. My country is not completely innocent, or without blemish on its medical community.

    So I must seriously question, without any intended hyperbole whatsoever, how the fuck can we trust any numbers in the US?

    Cuba may have issues with us arising out of the age old argument about Communism, but it was the WHO [who.int] (Thx Geotti) that validated their numbers. Not to mention, aside from statistics, Cuba is singled out by the WHO as a positive example of a world leader in health care, and example for the rest of the world.

    Since Cuba has been locked out of the rest of the world, it put up a lot of resources and effort to create the best medical system it could, under the circumstances. As a result, preventative care and quality of life is substantially higher than that of the US. Something seen when health care costs are a tiny fraction of the same commensurate costs of a U.S citizen, and prevention is emphasized above treatment.

    Yes, Cuba isn't perfect, and there are, and have been, shortages of medical supplies. None of that takes away from the achievements in R&D. As it is the WHO, that is supporting and backing up the scientific and medical claims of Cuba, I'm going to give them a little benefit of the doubt.

    For the record, Cuba has the highest number of physicians per capita - 59 per 10,000 people.

    I'm cynical, but that's an awful lot of talk from many countries praising Cuba that have no reason to praise Cuba.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday July 02 2015, @04:44AM

      by Francis (5544) on Thursday July 02 2015, @04:44AM (#204094)

      Are you sure about that? Cuba has one of the most tightly controlled news outlets in the world and people going there to study the system aren't going to have free access to the locals unless it's complimentary to the efforts the government is making.

      That's not to say that they aren't doing things right, just that you need to be really careful about promoting something that could well be propaganda. Especially when the research is being done by individuals that are beholden to the government. It's not even remotely the same as in the US.

    • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 02 2015, @05:01AM

      by captain normal (2205) on Thursday July 02 2015, @05:01AM (#204102)

      But..but...they're commies. They can't possibly have better health care than 'mericans. So they must be making up the info. Right...?

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.