• Submitted by: admin
• Health and Medicine
• 04 / 16 / 2010

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Doctor Julietta Rodriguez, a consultant with the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), praised in this capital the work carried out by Cuba with regard to the primary heath care provided to workers.

In her conversation with ACN, Rodriguez, who is attending the 3rd Congress on Health and Labor and the 6th Congress of the Central American and Caribbean Federation in this sector, pointed out that in spite of the economic limitations the island is going through, everything it does to guarantee people’s health is admirable.

The representative of the international body assessed the performance of the National Institute of Workers’ Health (INSAT), created over 30 years ago, and which has cooperated with the PAHO-WHO organizations in this field.

She described as “wonderful and absolutely praiseworthy, and at the same time necessary to acknowledge, the performance of that institution, which stands out for its research work, training and innovations to protect the health of workers, not only
Cubans, but also those in other parts of the world”.

INSAT exports technology, carries out scientific exchanges by way of teaching, and cooperates in the field of research with many nations in the region, underlined Rodriguez, who offered during the meeting a conference on occupational health policies in the Americas.

The PAHO consultant referred to the strategy of that United Nations organization, by way of which it has implemented over the last 15 years a regional plan to protect the health of workers, with emphasis in the attention of specific risks.

She highlighted that occupational health is closely linked to economic development, access to work and education, and that of course countries without socioeconomic conditions will have less opportunities, as it happens in developed nations.

It is estimated that there are 550 million workers in the Americas, some 350 million of which live in Latin America and the Caribbean. Around 50% of the latter are in a situation of economic instability, and the rest carries out activities with a certain level of wages or social and labor benefits, she stated.

 Source: ACN