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posted by
janrinok
on Wednesday July 01 2015, @08:39PM
from the they-are-thinking-of-the-children! dept.
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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Cuba Cuts Mother-to-Child HIV Transmissions to 2%
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Hacking's just another word for nothing left to kludge.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:19PM
Doubts are reasonable.
My government has always harped on how very hellish life is under communism. Every communist country in the world is comparable to Dante's Inferno. Meanwhile, Cuba has been exporting mercenaries and doctors around the world for just about all of my life. Propaganda is a two way thing, after all.
So, where is the truth? If Cuba is reporting accurate facts, great. If they're manipulating the facts, well, that just sucks. I don't know how to dig the facts up though.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Geotti on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:38PM
So, where is the truth? If Cuba is reporting accurate facts, great. If they're manipulating the facts, well, that just sucks. I don't know how to dig the facts up though.
Yeah, let's just give the WHO [who.int] the benefit of the doubt.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:50PM
Won't get fooled again.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 01 2015, @11:14PM
GP suggests that the WHO might have been gamed, and offers an explanation of how that might have been done. If infant deaths aren't recorded, or are written off as being due to other causes, then WHO can't really validate things very well, can they?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday July 02 2015, @02:16AM
You might also arrive at the conclusion that WHO is generally run by third world administrators, has historically been more than a little leftist, and it owes a big debt to Cuba for their (admirable) help in the Ebola zone.
Or you can take it at face value, and realize that they are getting the same results as western countries get when they use the same methods (lots of anti-virals during pregnancy).
The price for these anti-viral drugs (even the less than newest versions) has always been high in developed countries, and the drug makers make no bones about the fact that US/EU patients are subsidizing much much lower prices in poor parts of the world.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Touché) by captain normal on Thursday July 02 2015, @05:09AM
...and the drug makers make no bones about the fact that US/EU patients are being ripped off to pad profits over the reasonable prices in poor parts of the world.
TFTFY
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:18PM
The United States of America of today looks very much like the Soviet Union we grew up despising yesterday. Mass surveillance? Check. Sham elections? Check. Pervasive propaganda? Check. Secret courts? Check. Unlawful detentions? Check. Complete government disregard for written laws? Check. Government-sponsored torture? Check.
Old guys, am I missing anything? We don't have gulags for citizens yet, but we certainly do for illegal immigrants.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:44PM
Don't be so hasty on the gulags thing. Do yourself a favor, and google "FEMA camps". There are those who claim that the gulags have been built, they just sit empty and idle, waiting for the shit to hit the fan. I guarandamntee that I won't be "reeducated". The bastards can kill me first, if it comes to that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @05:22PM
Fox News is still pushing that "FEMA camp" nonsense? Wow. I suppose that's where all the POWs from the secret mission to conquer Texas, aka Jade Helm 15, are being sent?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:51PM
Speaking entirely anecdotally: My mother had a fair amount of contact with Cubans during the early 1990's as part of a religious exchange program, including a couple of visits (and no, she wasn't followed around by government minders or anything like that). This was the roughest time for Communist Cuba, because their only major trade partner, the USSR, had just collapsed, so they were stuck trying to make do on their own.
What she noticed about the medical system:
- Nobody was going really hungry. They didn't have extra food, but they did have enough, and there was a decent mix of vegetables, fruits, and grains.
- Their medical system was indeed extremely thorough: Each neighborhood had a doctor assigned, who served as the primary care physician and public health consultant for the area.
- Her hosts popped pills like it was nobody's business when they were available. For example, they'd take 4-5 aspirin when 1-2 would likely suffice.
- Neighborhood doctors at the time were trained in herbal remedies and were making use of them due to the shortage of medication. The clinic had an herb garden out front for this express purpose.
Another thing that's worth mentioning: Yes, every adult she ran into had a decent education. A lot of the anti-Castro exiles claim that the Cubans are lying about that too, but there was no sign of a large population of illiterate people out there.
Other sources like the CIA World Factbook [cia.gov] (not likely to be a pro-Castro source, if the phrase "Bay of Pigs" means anything) basically match the WHO's findings, which combined with the direct impressions suggests that yes, Cuba's medical system is actually quite good. None of this is surprising, because Fidel Castro's biggest domestic goals were improving education and medicine, and his government (and Che Guevara in particular) put a lot of time and resources into doing just that starting within a few months of the revolution.
There are very real problems with the Castro regime, but in general the average Cuban is much much better off than a lot of the counterparts in other nearby countries such as Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras, and Mexico.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.