During her speech at the 79th World Health Assembly, the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), Cuba’s first vice minister of health, Tania Cruz, denounced the effects suffered by the island’s health system due to the total fuel blockade imposed by the United States, which added to the already intensified economic embargo.

“This is an action with a serious impact on our health system, causing extraordinary harm to all Cuban families, to our children, the elderly, and the sick,” said Cruz, adding that “causing scarcity and extreme hardship to millions of people is nothing less than genocide and deserves the condemnation of all WHO members.”

Cruz explained that, although the country guarantees universal and free access to electricity for 100% of the population, the lack of energy stability has doubled infant mortality, which reached 9.9 per 1000 live births, and reported that the survival rate for children with cancer has decreased from 85% to 65%.

The official said that waiting lists for surgeries in the country currently exceed 100,300 patients, of whom 12,000 are children. She also noted that 16,000 people require radiotherapy and 3,000 depend on hemodialysis, essential services that demand energy stability, which cannot currently be guaranteed in the Caribbean country.

Cruz stated that, despite the challenges, Cuba’s National Health System has not collapsed and will continue to reorganize itself with resilience and optimization of resources.

Furthermore, the authority warned of another extremely serious situation, denouncing that Cuba is under threat of direct military aggression from the United States. She described this potential event as a brutal and uncivilized act that nothing could justify and called upon all peace-loving nations to mobilize to prevent the aggression, reaffirming that the Cuban people will defend their sovereignty and independence.

In conclusion, Cruz expressed her gratitude for international solidarity and reaffirmed the island’s humanist principles, recalling the deployment of three medical brigades to combat Ebola in West Africa in 2014 and assuring that they will continue to support other countries in the Global South in defending the human right to health.

The assembly, which will run until May 23, meets once a year in Geneva, Switzerland, to make decisions on WHO policies, approve the budget, and appoint the organization’s director-general**,**  among other actions.

During this meeting, Cruz spoke with the director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, who expressed his admiration for the Caribbean nation.

First published by Brasil de Fato in Portuguese.

The post At the World Health Assembly, Cuba denounced the US energy blockade’s impact on health appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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