• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 01 / 25 / 2011

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HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 20 (acn) Jose Miyar Barruecos, Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA), highlighted this week in Havana that the progress of Cuban biotechnology has contributed to the achievements made in human health since the first stage of life.

As an example, he said that Cuba closed 2010 with an infant mortality rate of 4.5 per every 1,000 live births, the lowest figure in Cuban history and lower than that of Canada, which puts the island in place 28 on a list of 195 countries.

During the annual meeting to assess the results of the Center for Immunoassays (CIE), the CITMA Minister highlighted the important role played by this center and the technology of the Ultra-microanalytic System (SUMA) developed by that institution, which has prenatal and postnatal programs that made it possible to reduce the infant mortality rate on the island.

With almost 24 years at the service of the health of the people, the CIE, founded by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro on September 7, 1987, has fulfilled its mission nonstop, oriented to the development of technologies and strategies for investigations on various diseases.

During his speech, the Minister praised the programs of the CIE to fight lung, colon, rectum, prostate, neck of the womb and breast, cancers among other ailments.

Dr. Luis Estruch, Deputy Minister for Epidemiology of the Cuban Public Health Ministry, explained that 75 per cent of deaths in Cuba are due to cardiovascular and brain vascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and lesions caused by smoking, alcoholism and obesity.

Prevention is the key word, and that’s where the CIE plays an essential role, emphasized Estruch.

Source: ACN