According to figures of the Public Health Ministry (MINSAP), Sancti Spiritus as well as Villa Clara and Havana are the territories with the largest numbers of elderly persons in the country.

Approximately 79,000 persons (17 percent) are over 60 and about 50 surpass the 100 year mark, revealed a provincial health report offered to Prensa Latina.

Melquiades Alvarez, Sectorial director of Public Health assured that community work with these fragile groups is seeking answers to confront the challenge and healthily live more years.

Added to this, he said, are the advances achieved in social and health services on a local level, in the policlinic and with family doctors.

A study by the Latin American Demography Center warns that due to the low levels of sustained fertility during the 70s and especially during the last decade there will be an intensification of aging in the Island.

The investigation predicts that by 2015 one of every five Cubans will be an elderly person and by 2025 one of every four. From 2035 to 2050 this figure will be reduced to one of three, a proportion that has not been reached by any nation in the world.

According to the last census of inhabitants and housing there are more than 1,800 people over 100 years old while 46,000 persons surpass 90 years of age.

Old age has several manifestations in eastern Cuba except Pinar del Rio and the central region up to Sancti Spiritus, which has the highest number of elderly while in eastern Cuba from Ciego de Avila to Guantanamo there are fewer elderly persons.

(Escambray.cu)