Sick children of Cuba are the victims of US sanctions: MfA report

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Nov 2022 15:43
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Dozens of children diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity risk losing their eyesight if they go untreated.

Cuban children at a medical center in Havana (AP)

A report presented to the UNGA by Cuba's Foreign Ministry relayed that pedriatric patients are suffering the consequences of the economic sanctions imposed on Cuba by the US.

In the report, the Caribbean nation cannot acquire the Laser System model IQ 577 from American company Iridex Corporation, which limits the treatment of children diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) annually. If the diagnosis goes untreated, children affected risk losing their eyesight.

During the period between August 2021 and February 2022, eight infants from Cuba with distinct types of cancer could not receive the chemotherapy treatment most suitable for their diagnosis, forcing medical professionals to resort to the use of other options such as drugs, namely Actinomycin D, Ifosfamide and Procarbazine.

Pediatric patients with cardiovascular problems are incapable of accessing biological cardiac implant materials, such as biological heart valves made in the US.

Nusinersen, manufactured by the North American multinational company Biogen and used to sustain the lives of those affected by infantile spinal atrophy, has also become unavailable in Cuba due to the sanctions.

It is noteworthy that during his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, Cuban FM Bruno Rodriguez Parilla decried the 60 years of US economic embargo against Cuba, which he described as "vast, cruel and immoral."

The Cuban Foreign Minister explained that "the government of the US is reinforcing pressure on banking institutions, companies, and governments throughout the world that are interested in establishing relations with Cuba, and the US continues to obsessively pursue all sources of foreign exchange coming into the country to bring about the economic collapse of the nation."

Rodriguez Parilla recalled that the UNGA had voted 29 times, with an overwhelming majority, to end the "ruthless and unilateral" embargo on Cuba, noting that the US ignored the assembly's decision 29 times.