LavenderRed_Cubabook

The Financial Times—no friend to socialist construction—reported, “Cuba has much
to teach the world about tackling AIDS, the American Association for the Advancement
of Science heard on [Feb. 16, 2003]. A wide-ranging prevention and treatment program,
backed by strong political action, has given the Caribbean country the lowest prevalence
of AIDS disease and HIV infection in the western hemisphere—and one of the lowest
rates in the world.” (Cookson)
Cuba addresses world impact
In its issue coinciding with International AIDS Day 2001, Medicc Review noted,
“Today, some 36 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, over 25 million of
them in Africa, where most have no way to pay for the drugs that might extend their lives.
They die with no treatment in sight.” (“Cuba’s HIV-AIDS Rate”)
Medicc Review reprinted the full text of a speech by Cuban Vice President Carlos
Lage Dávila, delivered earlier that year at the United Nations General Assembly
on AIDS. Lage Dávila had offered his socialist government’s solidarity for people with
AIDS, “especially those in the developing countries most affected.”
In his speech on June 25, 2001, Lage Dávila said, “No country is free of AIDS. Some—
the privileged and rich—have managed to reduce the mortality rate with medicines sold
at high, unreasonable prices. Others—unfortunate and poor—are experiencing a terrifying
reduction in their population’s life expectancy and a demographic decline that could
lead them to extinction.”
He stressed that, “In many African nations, the number of teachers who die from
AIDS each year is greater than the number of new teachers graduating. The deaths in
sub-Saharan Africa to date are equivalent to those that would have resulted from dropping
on the region 70 bombs like the ones on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a dramatic
paradox that, in this new millennium, the same continent that witnessed the appearance
of humankind’s first ancestors six million years ago begins to witness the disappearance
of humankind.
“Cuba also suffers from this disease; there have been 2,565 people living with HIV/
AIDS in our country, 388 of whom currently have the full-blown disease, and 896 of
whom have died over the last 14 years.
“Our program to fight AIDS,” Lage Dávila explained, “guarantees comprehensive care
for people with HIV and AIDS, free anti-retroviral treatment for all, specialized medical
centers for those who require them and a constant struggle for patients to achieve the
fullest social integration, with all their rights and without discrimination.
“It also guarantees access to safe blood, certifying that 100 percent of blood donations
are free of AIDS, hepatitis and other illnesses; voluntary testing of all pregnant women,
resulting in zero mother-child transmission since 1997; and an education and prevention
strategy aimed at vulnerable groups, young people and the entire population. We
have the lowest AIDS rate in the Americas and one of the lowest in the world, with 0.3
percent of the population between 15 and 49 years affected.
58 Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba