INCREASED SPREAD OF HIV IN CUBA. 1400 NEW CASES

Cuba's HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to increase despite the levels of controls exercised in the island and outside on both information and researches on HIV and AIDS. Health ministry officials in Havana have blamed a generalized attitude in the island for a low risk perception for the increasingly dangerous spread of HIV in Cuba. According to the officials, while in 2002 there were 650 new cases, last year closed with some 1,400 more HIV positive persons.

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health’s program for the promotion, prevention and free treatment for persons HIV-positive and suffering AIDS costs US $216 million per year, reported Dr. Luis Estruch Rancaño, deputy minister for hygiene, epidemiology and microbiology.

HIV was demonstrated in Cubans as far back as1980 when samples of blood (serum) preserved for studies on hepatitis were checked for HIV and confirmed to have definitive evidence of HIV infection at a level of circulation several times greater than in New York City at that time. The study was funded by The Finlay Medical Society, a non-profit organization. The timely study has been discarded by Cuban health authorities as politically motivated and representing an unusually high level of HIV infection in the "scum" of Cuban society.

Despite official claims that HIV was controlled in Cuba by organizing a sanatorial reclusion that began in 1986, the epidemic has continued to advance. Studying HIV or AIDS in Cubans is strictly prohibited by the Cuban government and various international organizations that include Cuba among its members.

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