Category: Health Care
Venezuela Provides Medical Scholarships to Saint Lucia Students
| June 23, 2015 | 8:19 pm | Health Care, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed

  • Some of the scholarship recipients

    Some of the scholarship recipients | Photo: teleSUR

Published 23 June 2015

 http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Provides-Medical-Scholarships-to-Saint-Lucia-Students-20150623-0011.html

Saint Lucian and Venezuelan representatives celebrate the first group of Saint Lucian students to study medicine on full scholarships in Venezuela.

Almost two dozen Saint Lucian medical students will soon embark on their journey to Venezuela, after receiving scholarships by its government to pursue a seven-year course in community medicine.

The young men and women will study at the Salvador Allende University of Health Sciences, funded by the ALBA group of Latin American and Caribbean nations.

The community medicine program proposes to train doctors with an elevated social, humanistic, ethical, scientific and technical commitment. The program strives to train health professionals to offer holistic medical attention to patients, advocating for them and working to heal and rehabilitate the individual, their families and the community.

Saint Lucia’s Health Minister Alvina Bertrame Reynolds welcomed the Venezuelan initiative at a time the Saint Lucian government seeks to strengthen health services in rural areas and communities across the island, saying this area of care needs specialists.

“Students, parents, what a wonderful gift to the people of Saint Lucia in giving us an opportunity to be trained and come back medical professionals,” she said.

“You are well needed to help us fight this battle, because you are going to study integral community medicine. It doesn’t place you only in a hospital. It places you directly, personally in the community and I really salute Commandante Chavez and Commandante Castro for that vision.”

Venezuela’s Representative in Saint Lucia, Leiff Escalona, says her government is happy to be strengthening ties with Saint Lucia in both education and health.

“It is a social, scientific career. It is a future for your family, for your country too and for the people of Saint Lucia. Of course, it is a pleasure for the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to continue with this support,” Escalona said.

The scholarship includes tuition fees, air travel, medical care, lodging and a monthly allowance. According to the requirements of the scholarships, applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 24 and come from low income households.

Africa: AIDS Struggle Continues
| June 22, 2015 | 12:44 pm | Africa, Health Care | Comments closed

AfricaFocus Bulletin
June 22, 2015 (150622)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“Both globally and in Africa, there is good news. Our collective
efforts to end the AIDS epidemic are paying off. Now more people
living with HIV than ever before are accessing treatment, more
people know their status, and AIDS-related deaths are declining. …
This progress, however, belies a dangerous reality: young African
women and adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to HIV.” –
UNAIDS, June 2015

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
printing, go to http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/hiv1506.php, and
click on “format for print or mobile.”

To share this on Facebook, click on
https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/hiv1506.php

Progress in scientific research and in treatment for HIV/AIDS
continues, with the most notable recent advance being the START
(Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment) results released in
May (http://tinyurl.com/on9gsm4). This international study funded by
the U.S. National Institute of Health showed that introducing
treatment at the time of diagnosis instead of waiting until further
damage to the immune system increases rates of survival by over 50%.
Yet this news also highlights the gap between what is now possible
and the results achieved (see latest data at
http://tinyurl.com/nrexvjc).

A new UNAIDS report released this month, and excerpted below in this
AfricaFocus Bulletin, makes it clear that those most vulnerable to
the decades-long pandemic continue to be young women and adolescent
girls in Africa. The response, the report stresses, must include not
only providing additional resources for all aspects of the fight
against HIV/AIDS but also addressing fundamental issues of gender
inequality.

For talking points and previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on health
issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-health.php

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ebola Perspectives – Update

“The Other Ebola Battle: Fair Pay for Local Health Workers,” June 2,
2105
http://tinyurl.com/o2yvf2j

“Ebola Cases Rise Again in West Africa,” June 10, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/qcjfedr

“Turn on the taps to defeat the next Ebola,” June 15, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/nhonhk2

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Empower Young Women and Adolescent Girls: Fast-Tracking the end Of
the Aids Epidemic in Africa

UNAIDS

June 2015

[Excerpts only. Full formatted report, with references and graphs,
available at
http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2015/JC2746]

Foreword

Four decades into the HIV epidemic and response, we have made
encouraging progress. More people living with HIV than ever before
are accessing life-saving treatment; the number of deaths from AIDS-
related causes has declined; fewer babies are becoming infected with
HIV; and new HIV infections have fallen. Africa’s leadership
commitments, the tireless efforts of civil society–including the
women’s movement and networks of women living with HIV–combined
with scientific innovation and global solidarity have helped to
achieve these great strides. The response will be strengthened
further by the commitment from Africa’s leadership to end the AIDS
epidemic by 2030, while promoting shared responsibility and unity.

Yet, despite this progress, adolescent girls and young women are
still being left behind and denied their full rights. They are often
unable to enjoy the benefits of secondary education and formal paid
employment under decent conditions, which would allow them to build
skills, assets and resilience. The threat of violence is pervasive
— and not only in conflict and post-conflict situations. Many girls
are married as children and assume adult roles of motherhood.
Adolescent girls and young women are often prevented from seeking
services and making decisions about their own health. This
combination of factors drives both their risk of acquiring HIV and
their vulnerability to HIV. The impact of HIV on young women and
adolescent girls is acute: they account for one in five new HIV
infections in Africa and are almost three times as likely as their
male peers to be living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

The variables and risks associated with sexual and reproductive
health and HIV among adolescent girls and young women are tied to
gender inequalities that are intricately woven into the
sociocultural, economic and political fabric of society. Unleashing
the potential of half the population of this region and tapping into
the power of the largest youth populace in history will promote both
sustainable progress in the HIV response and wider development
outcomes.

In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “If we are to see any real
development in the world, then our best investment is women.” This
holds true for the AIDS response, which needs greater attention,
reaffirmed commitment and resourced action to ensure the health,
rights and well-being of adolescent girls and young women throughout
their life-cycle. The solutions engage all sectors of society and
must embrace innovation.

The key message of advancing women’s rights and gender equality in
order to fast-track the end of the AIDS epidemic among adolescent
girls and young women outlined in this report is an important
contribution to the 2015 African Union theme “Year of women’s
empowerment and development towards Africa’s agenda 2063”. This will
guide our blueprint for future action.

As the African community and the global community stand at the dawn
of a new era of sustainable development, let us reaffirm our
commitment to empowering girls and young women. A firm foundation of
social justice, human rights and gender equality will make the AIDS
response formidable and the end of the AIDS epidemic possible.

Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chair, African Union Commission

**************************************************************

Introduction

With the platform provided by the post-2015 sustainable development
goals, and leveraging the successes of the AIDS response so far,
Africa has a historic opportunity to end the AIDS epidemic as a
public health threat by 2030.

This requires adapting to the dynamism and opportunities of the
continent and reaching people most vulnerable to HIV including young
women and adolescent girls. It also requires taking action to target
the root causes of vulnerability. The magnitude of young women’s and
adolescent girls’ vulnerability to HIV cannot be explained by
biology alone but lies in pervasive conditions of gender inequality
and power imbalances as well as high levels of intimate partner
violence.

Since the 1995 adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action, the reality for most women and girls worldwide, including in
Africa, is that the pace of change has been unacceptably slow. Women
and girls are subject to multiple and intersecting forms of
discrimination. These inequalities are even more acute for
marginalized women, such as women with disabilities, migrant women,
female sex workers and transgender women, who are also at heightened
risk of discrimination and violence (1). There also remain other
large disparities, such as fewer than one in three girls in sub-
Saharan Africa being enrolled in secondary school, women having
unequal access to economic opportunities, and women lacking
decision-making power in the home and wider society (2, 3).

Within the context of HIV, this manifests in different ways. Young
women and adolescent girls acquire HIV five to seven years earlier
than young men, and in some countries HIV prevalence among young
women and adolescent girls is as much as seven times that of their
male counterparts(11, 54). Despite the availability of
antiretroviral medicines, AIDS-related illnesses remain the leading
cause of death among girls and women of reproductive age in Africa
(4).

Many of these young women and girls are born and raised in
communities where they are not treated as equal. Many cannot reduce
their vulnerability to HIV because they are not permitted to make
decisions on their own health care. They cannot reduce their
vulnerability because they cannot choose at what age or who to
marry, when to have sex, how to protect themselves or how many
children to have.

The impacts of gender inequality are far-reaching. Gender equality
matters intrinsically because the ability to make choices that
affect a person’s own life is a basic human right and should be
equal for everyone, independent of whether person is male or female.
But gender equality also matters instrumentally because it
contributes to economies and key development outcomes (3).

To be effective, any health and development agenda needs to focus on
the root causes of the gender gap, and the AIDS response is no
different. But there is also good news on which to build. In the
past 20 years the gender gap has closed in many areas with the most
noticeable progress made in primary school enrolment and completion,
in almost all countries. In addition, life expectancy of women in
low-income countries is now 20 years longer on average than in 1960,
and over the past 30 years women’s participation in paid work has
risen in most parts of the developing world (3).

There is also significant political commitment from Africa to gender
equality and women’s empowerment, with specific goals and targets
for the response to HIV and sexual and reproductive health and
rights. African leaders have enshrined the priorities of gender
equality and rights in (among others) the African Union Agenda 2063;
the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on
the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Declaration 2003); the Solemn
Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (2004); the Sexual and
Reproductive Health Strategy for the Southern African Development
Community Region (2006-2015); the 2013 Ministerial Commitment on
Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Sexual and Reproductive Health
and Rights in Eastern and Southern Africa; the Arab Strategic
Framework on HIV and AIDS (2013-2015): and the Arab AIDS Initiative
2012; the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development in
Africa Beyond 2014; and the 2013 Declaration of the Special Summit
of the African Union on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The depth and breadth of this political platform and the potential
for action to transform the lives of young women and adolescent
girls in Africa cannot be underestimated.

The Aids Response in Africa: Young Women and Adolescent Girls Left
Behind

Both globally and in Africa, there is good news. Our collective
efforts to end the AIDS epidemic are paying off. Now more people
living with HIV than ever before are accessing treatment, more
people know their status, and AIDS-related deaths are declining. New
HIV infections among young people aged 15-24 years are also
declining (460 000 new infections in 2013 compared with almost 715
000 new infections a decade earlier) (55). This progress, however,
belies a dangerous reality: young African women and adolescent girls
are especially vulnerable to HIV.

Globally in 2013, 15% of the approximately 16 million women aged 15
years and older living with HIV were young women; of these over 80%
live in sub-Saharan Africa (55).

Despite declining HIV infection rates, in 2013 globally, there were
approximately 250 000 new HIV infections among adolescent boys and
girls, 64% of which are among adolescent girls (Figs 2 and 3). In
Africa, 74% of new infections among adolescents were among
adolescent girls (55). In addition, AIDS-related illnesses are the
leading cause of death among adolescent girls and women of
reproductive age in Africa, despite the availability of treatment
(4).

Furthermore, young women and adolescent girls are missing out on the
scale-up of antiretroviral treatment access for people living with
HIV. Only 15% of young women and adolescent girls aged 15-24 years
in sub-Saharan Africa know their HIV status (6). In the Middle East
and North Africa, only one in five people living with HIV has access
to treatment (55).

Young women and adolescent girls from socially marginalized groups
are at increased risk of HIV because they face multiple challenges.
Stigma, discrimination, punitive laws and a lack of social
protection increase the risk of HIV, notably for young female sex
workers, young transgender women, young migrants and young women who
use drugs (7). In Kenya, HIV prevalence among female sex workers in
Nairobi is 29% — approximately three times the HIV prevalence among
other women in Nairobi (8).

Eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and keeping mothers
alive

Progress to eliminate new HIV infections among children and keeping
their mothers alive has been one of the most impressive achievements
of the AIDS response to date. In 2013, for the first time since the
1990s, the number of new HIV infections among children in the 21
Global Plan 1 priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa dropped to
under 200 000. This represents a 43% decline in the number of new
HIV infections among children in these countries since 2009 (58).

Despite successes, progress among young women and adolescent mothers
has been slow with many challenges. The average adolescent birth
rate in Africa is 115 per 1000 girls, more than double the global
average of 49 per 1000 girls (6). In western and central Africa, 28%
of women aged 20-24 years have reported a birth before the age of 18
years, the highest percentage among developing regions. In Chad,
Guinea, Mali, Mozambique and Niger, 1 in 10 girls has a child before
the age of 15 years (9). In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 36 000
women and girls die each year from unsafe abortions, and millions
more suffer long-term illness or disability (9).

Many young women who marry or enter into partnerships early do not
have the knowledge or the personal agency that enables them to
protect themselves from HIV — for example, they cannot negotiate
when to have sex or to use condoms.

A core strategy to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV is
to prevent pregnancy in young women and adolescent girls who do not
want to have a child at that time. According to the United Nations
Population Fund, 33 million women aged 15-24 years worldwide have an
unmet need for contraception, with substantial regional variations.
For married girls aged 15-19 years, the figures for an unmet need
for contraception range from 8.6% in the Middle East and North
Africa to 30.5% (one in three married girls) in western and central
Africa (10). Among unmarried sexually active adolescent girls, the
unmet need for contraception in sub-Saharan Africa is 46-49%; there
are no data for North Africa (10).

According to 2013 data, in sub-Saharan Africa, only eight male
condoms were available per year for each sexually active individual.
Among young people, and particularly among young women, condom
access and use remain low, despite offering dual protection against
HIV and unwanted pregnancy (11). Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 44%
of all unsafe abortions among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years in
low- and middle- income countries (excluding east Asia) (9).

Governments in Africa have already made important commitments in
this area that can be leveraged. Among the strongest is the 2013
Ministerial Commitment for Comprehensive Sexuality Education and
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Eastern and Southern
Africa. This commitment includes action to “reduce early and
unintended pregnancies among young people by 75%”(12).

Providing access to comprehensive sexuality education, keeping girls
in school and implementing social protection programmes such as cash
transfer programmes have all proven effective in reducing new
infections among young women and adolescent girls.

Stopping child marriage and early pregnancy is also central to
success. Across Africa, 41% of girls in western and central Africa,
34% of girls in eastern and southern Africa and 12% of girls in the
Arab states are married as children (13). Child marriage has been
associated with higher exposure to intimate partner violence and
commercial sexual exploitation (13). Child marriage is a form of
violence.

Intimate partner violence and the association with HIV

Over the past decade strong evidence has emerged on the relationship
between intimate partner violence and HIV. There is equally strong
evidence for and recognition of successful community strategies to
prevent intimate partner violence and vulnerability to HIV (16, 29,
30, 57).

In high HIV prevalence settings, women who are exposed to intimate
partner violence are 50% more likely to acquire HIV than those who
are not exposed (16). Adolescent girls and young women also have the
highest incidence of intimate partner violence (11). In Zimbabwe,
for example, the prevalence of intimate partner violence among women
aged 15-24 years is 35%, compared with 24% for women aged 25-49
years; and in Gabon, prevalence of intimate partner violence among
young women is 42% compared with 28% for older women. In some
settings, 45% of adolescent girls report that their first experience
of sex was forced, another known risk factor for HIV (Fig. 4) (17).
In addition, girls who marry before age 18 are more likely to
experience violence within marriage than girls who marry later (14).
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), globally
120 million girls — 1 in 10 — are raped or sexually attacked by
the age of 20 years (15).

Women and girls also continue to experience unique risks and
vulnerabilities to HIV during conflicts, emergencies and post-
conflict periods. In conflict situations, rape can be used as a
weapon of war, increasing the risk of HIV transmission because rates
of HIV among military personnel typically exceed those of the
general population (18). Adolescent girls are particularly
vulnerable and, in some cases, are abducted and used for sexual
purposes by armed groups (15). The 2011 United Nations (UN) Security
Council Resolution 1983 recognizes that the impact of HIV is felt
most acutely by women and girls in conflict and post-conflict
settings due to both sexual violence and reduced or no access to
services (19). As highlighted by the resolution, however, there is
also potential for peacekeeping operations to protect civilian
populations through prevention of conflict-related sexual violence.

Core reasons why young women and adolescent girls are vulnerable to
HIV

Every hour, around 34 young African women are newly infected with
HIV. The reasons for relatively high rates of infection and low
scale-up of services for young women in Africa are complex and
interwoven. Changing the course of the epidemic requires addressing
the root causes and understanding the core conditions that
exacerbate vulnerability. Seven core conditions stand out:

* inadequate access to good-quality sexual and reproductive health
information, commodities and services, in some measure due to age of
consent to access services;

* low personal agency, meaning women are unable to make choices and
take action on matters of their own health and well-being;

* harmful gender norms, including child, early and forced marriage,
resulting in early pregnancy;

* transactional and unprotected age-disparate sex, often as a result
of poverty, lack of opportunity or lack of material goods;

* lack of access to secondary education and comprehensive age-
appropriate sexuality education;

* intimate partner violence, which impacts on risk and health-
seeking behaviour;

* violence in conflict and post-conflict settings.

Individually or in combination, these factors severely inhibit the
ability of young women and adolescent girls to protect themselves
from HIV, violence and unintended or unwanted pregnancy. Gender
inequality and lack of women’s empowerment or agency are key themes
that cut across these drivers.

Women’s agency or empowerment is the ability to make choices and to
transform them into desired actions and outcomes. Across all
countries and cultures there are differences between men’s and
women’s ability to make these choices. Women’s empowerment
influences their ability to build their human capital. Greater
control over household resources by women leads to more investment
in children’s human capital, shaping the opportunities for the next
generation (3). In sub-Saharan African countries, more than half of
married adolescent girls and young women do not have the final say
regarding their own health care and play a low decision-making role
in the household (20).

Poverty is another overarching factor. Poverty can push girls into
age-disparate relationships, a driver of HIV risk for young women
and adolescent girls. For example, in South Africa, 34% of sexually
active adolescent girls report being in a relationship with a man at
least five years their senior. Such relationships expose young woman
and girls to unsafe sexual behaviours, low condom use and increased
risk of sexually transmitted infections (57). The risk of
trafficking and sexual exploitation is also higher for young women
and adolescent girls living in poverty (21).

Poverty also increases the risk of child marriage, and girls in the
poorest economic quintile are 2.5 times more likely to be married as
children compared with girls in the richest quintile (21). In 2010,
67 million women aged 20-24 years had been married as girls, of
which one-fifth were in Africa (14).

In May 2014, after numerous national and regional commitments to
address child marriage (including the 2005 Maputo Protocol, Article
6c), the African Union Commission initiated a 2-year campaign,
starting in 10 African countries 2 , to accelerate the end of child
marriage on the continent by increasing awareness, influencing
policy, advocating for the implementation of laws and ensuring
accountability. Eliminating child marriage will decrease African
girls’ greater risk of experiencing domestic violence, premature
pregnancies and related complications, and sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV.

There are promising solutions, but the solutions today are not the
solutions of yesterday. Fast-tracking the response is about being
flexible and taking account of the rapid transition taking place in
Africa today, looking at the new risks but also at the new
opportunities.

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
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or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
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The Americans studying medicine in Cuba
| June 13, 2015 | 11:15 am | Cuba, Health Care | Comments closed

June 12, 2015Source: ProgesoWeekly

HAVANA, Cuba  After Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in August 2005, Cuba offered a cadre of doctors and medical supplies to help treat injured and displaced Americans. Cuba is renowned around the world for the quality of its doctors, but the United States government declined the offer.
Of course, that’s not exactly surprising given the two countries’ decades of animosity. Tension between Cuba and the U.S. is most visibly epitomized by a still-in-place trade embargo imposed by the U.S. in 1960, one year after Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara led a revolution to turn Cuba into a communist state.
Given the frosty relations and how the U.S. declined Cuban medical aid in 2005, one might reasonably assume the island just 90 miles south of Florida is the last place an American would go for medical school.
One would be wrong.
Lillian Burnett, who is from Oakland, is proof and she’s not alone.
But how does someone get from California to the Cuban capital en route to becoming a certified doctor?
It’s a story that involves Castro, an inspiring presentation back in the Bay Area, a personal desire to do good and a forward-thinking Cuban mission with an international outlook. It’s also a story that shines a light on the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM), a program that trains doctors and helps patients worldwide, including in the U.S., even though few Americans are aware of its existence.

Inspiration from Honduras

Burnett graduated from UC Berkeley in 2005 with an eye on becoming a doctor. Soon after, Pastors for Peace, an interfaith organization that aims to help underserved populations, came to Laney College in Oakland to give a presentation about ELAM. An ELAM graduate named Luther Castillo spoke of his own experience in the program and told of the work he was doing back home in Honduras, serving his own Garifuna community, a Central American population of African descent.
“The Garifuna are very much a disenfranchised, oppressed, ostracized people in their countries and Luther was just this amazing young man who was doing amazing work,” Burnett recalled last month, sitting in her small one-bedroom apartment in Havana.

Hospital Salvador Allende in Havana where Burnett and her classmates study medicine. Hospital Salvador Allende in Havana where Burnett and her classmates study medicine.

Castillo talked about how he and other ELAM graduates had taken a method of medicine modeled after the Cuban system and applied it to his Garifuna community in Honduras. Small neighborhood clinics served and built relationships with collections of families in particular neighborhoods, where doctors functioned as community leaders as well as medical professionals.
The effect was something more intimate and holistic than the American health care system in which treatment can often feel hasty and impersonal.
“I saw that and was like, ‘Yup, that’s what I want to do,” Burnett says.
That’s the kind of doctor I want to be. I want to be groomed like that. Even if I can’t necessarily come back to the States and practice that way, let me have those values instilled in me as I’m learning this science.”
ELAM brings students from around the world to Cuba for a six-year program, taught in Spanish and covered by scholarships from the Cuban government. (For Americans, those scholarships are administered by the IFCO/Pastors for Peace partnership.)
Students have to make just one promise: After finishing the program, they’ll return home to work in underserved communities in their own home countries.
ELAM’s six-year program includes more than 10,000 students from more than 120 countries, according to MEDICC, a non-profit organization that works to facilitate cooperation in medical education between the U.S., Cuba and other countries. As of 2014, ELAM had graduated a total of 23,000 students from 83 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas since its first class finished in 2005. American graduates, as of 2014 there were more than 100, along with about 100 current students from the U.S., are “overwhelmingly young people of color from low-income families, over half women,” according to MEDICC.
Gail Reed, MEDICC’s research director, says ELAM is the world’s largest medical school.
Sold on both Castillo’s story and ELAM as a whole, Burnett spent some time in the U.S. taking pre-med courses and saving money, then enrolled in the program and moved to Havana in 2011.
Her journey was just beginning.

Classmates and connections from all over

Burnett says one of her favorite aspects of ELAM is its emphasis on group responsibility beyond cultural lines. A typical group assignment could partner her with students from Lebanon, Pakistan, Mongolia, Ecuador and the Comoros, all of them working together in Spanish. In the eyes of their Cuban professors, success “or failure” is earned together, not as individuals.
“Say the kid from Pakistan and the kid from the Comoros are killing it, but the rest of us are struggling,” she says. “Professors aren’t going to let them get 5s and the rest of us get 2s and 3s. They’ll say, “How come you guys did well and your companeros are having a hard time? Shame on you. You need to help them out. You need to lift them up.”
But the benefits aren’t only educational.
That’s an excellent political diplomacy and international solidarity move, because you’re not going to be so quick to make someone an enemy,” Burnett says. “You have this mentality of, “Nah, man, I went through six years of medical school and some real stuff with my friend from Palestine right there. That’s the homie!”

“You have a responsibility in that, too”

Burnett is currently nearing the end of her fourth year in the program. The first two are spent mostly in the classroom learning hard sciences, the subsequent four doing hands-on clinical work. From day one, however, students get assigned to individual neighborhoods where they go door-to-door to take people’s temperatures, test blood pressure and inquire about people’s general well-being.
It’s not an intrusion to those residents, though, Burnett says, since they’re used to such a community-based healthcare model. Typically, a clinic called a consultorio will serve a given neighborhood; the doctor often lives above the clinic where he practices and gets to know local families well. Then a bigger clinic will offer more specific care for a collection of neighborhoods, with hospitals existing as a top-tier for last resort or in case of emergencies.
Aspects of that connected, social, community-based system are what Burnett and many of her fellow ELAM students hope to take back to their own countries after graduation.
“There’s a way of interacting with people and being present in the community that’s not just scientific or hard medicine,” she says. “I’d really like to practice in a community to help it mobilize around its own health.”
Burnett mentions her own hometown of Oakland.
“Cubans would say there’s a role the physician has to play around addressing gun violence in the community, around addressing addiction in the community, addressing police brutality in the community,” she continues. “Those are things people are dying from, even if there’s not a pill for them. You need to understand the impact that all those other social, political economic stressors have on someone developing an infectious disease or diabetes or hypertension in that atmosphere.
“There’s medicine in that, too. You have a responsibility in that, too.”
Cuba to show final results of lung cancer vaccine
| May 12, 2015 | 9:02 pm | Cuba, Health Care | Comments closed

HAVANA, Cuba, May 11 (acn) The final results of the efficacy confirmation study of the Cuban vaccine CIMAvax-EGF in advanced lung cancer will be presented at the 5th International Workshop on the subject next Tuesday and Wednesday in this city.

Based in the Convention Palace of Havana, the event, sponsored by CIMAB SA, Cuban Biopharmaceutical Company dedicated to the development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of malignant tumors, aims to discuss new therapeutic indications and combinations of the compound.

Among other things, it will be discussed the implementation of the vaccine -created by scientists at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM by its Spanish acronym) – in the primary health care, its overall safety profile, and post-record experiences in other countries, the call to the scientific forum refers.

Considered a novel approach capable of generating antibodies on the patient against epidermal growth factor (EGF), CIMAvax-EGF is the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer registered.

The antibodies generated by this against EGF inhibit EGF activation and stop the proliferation of tumor cells.
Consequently the progression of the disease is controlled, survival increases and significantly improves quality of life in treated patients, the statement said.

Since 2012, cancer is the leading cause of death in Cuba, according to the 2014 Health Statistics Yearbook; lung cancer ranks the highest mortality rates in the country, both in women and men.

CIM experts assert that the event is an excellent opportunity for discussion on lessons learned in the field of science and evaluate new strategies and their implementation in medical practice, new indications and therapeutic combinations.

Recently, CIM and the Roswell Park Institute against Cancer, in New York, signed an agreement to export to the United States this therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer, so clinical trials will soon begin.

CIMAVax-EGF, created in 2011 after 15 years of research, with patent rights worldwide, is registered in Cuba and Peru.

Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, among other countries, are in the process for its registration, and some like the UK and Australia have conducted clinical trials with it, as announced at that meeting between the two sides.

Doctors fighting ebola
| March 29, 2015 | 7:52 pm | Analysis, Cuba, Ebola, Health Care, International, political struggle | Comments closed

Completing their mission with revolutionary and medical ethics
THE Cuban medical brigade is a united team. Recently, the tension has been reduced, and suitcases packed for their return home. The tranquil city of Monrovia, is not the same one they experienced during the first days of their stay. The hustle and bustle of the market along the main roads signals, paradoxically, calm.
Members of the Cuban medical brigade combating Ebola in West Africa. Photo: Ronald Hernández
I talk to doctors and nurses, and tell them what they already know: In Cuba we are following you and waiting for your return. But they resist being called heroes, perhaps because they genuinely are. The day Cuba announced its decision to join the fight against Ebola, which was in reality the decision of their people, of these men, to travel to Africa’s danger zones, where the Ebola epidemic was concentrated, we Cubans became a single family. We regard them as our own, like fathers, brother or sons, and were always concerned for their health, for the patients they saved, and of those they lost. I have spoken to almost all of them, and they are all so different, but alike in one aspect. These men are Cubans of the Revolution. I want to share with you the testimony of 63 year old Dr. Leonardo Fernández, intensive therapy and internal medicine specialist, MSc graduate in emergency medicine and intensive care, and assistant professor at the MedicalSciencesUniversity in Guantánamo, In his own words…
“My family is used to it, as I have already completed various missions, but we also share the same values. It’s a small and totally revolutionary family: my wife, two children, an aunt and two uncles. My wife is retired, my daughter is a clinical laboratory graduate, and has completed a mission in Venezuela; my son is an ambulance driver. A small, but very united family.
WITH FEAR, BUT ALSO COURAGE
“I believe in the youth. Why not! The youth is change, revolution. I tell my youngest compañeros: I can’t think like you, I grew up in a different time, in a different era, with other needs, now there are other perspectives, more facilities. The youth is change. We have to form values, principles. The majority of the brigade members are young people. We are only four or five senior members. They have been very brave, above all the nurses, and have worked with great intensity, with fear, we all felt a great sense of fear, before leaving, and here… and we still feel it, because even up until the last day, that little creature can infect us. With fear, but also with courage. I believe the training we received in Cuba was excellent, decisive, I would say, since we were told from the very beginning the reality of the situation. They told us what we would be facing and the risks we would run, we were given all this information in Cuba. I greatly appreciate the training offered by the WHO, but that which we received in Cuba, in the Medical Collaboration Central Unit and the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine was exceptional.
So, we left knowing what was to come, knowing the risks, physiologically and technically prepared for the task ahead. This was fundamental. And later, the General’s (Raúl Castro) farewell filled everyone with strength.”
TRAGEDY AND SOLIDARITY
Dr. Leonardo Fernández. Photo: Enrique Ubieta Gómez
“When we arrived, we found a country, a city, deserted. There were hardly any cars or people on the streets, there was no one. Even in the hotel where we ate lunch and dinner, there were only Cubans and three UN representatives. And now, I tell you, what a difference! … So, one leaves with this little bit of pride: knowing that I did something so that this city is once again full of people. People greet us in the street, when we go out to eat or shopping, they treat us with great affection. The cars in the road stop to allow the Cubans to cross.
“We witnessed the birth of this unit. We were frightened the first week, but as time went by, we had to put a stop to these fears, because they wanted us to do more than had been requested of us. We saw entire families die, children left alone, the mother, father and three little brothers all died, terrible…But we also saw others who survived Ebola, who after recovering, gathered together and adopted orphaned children. There is no better reward for us than to see the solidarity of Liberians with each other. We came as volunteers, and at no time in Cuba did they talk to us about rewards. At my hospital they arrived and asked who was willing to go, and told us that we might not return, and I raised my hand. No one told us: We are going to pay you so much, or we are going to give you such and such a thing. This is what the majority of people believe.”
FEELING LIKE A HERO?
“Look, the media impact of this mission, the information which has been disseminated via Facebook, via the internet, has made some believe that we have done something extraordinary, which makes us heroes. I believe that we have completed a task, with revolutionary and medical ethics. How is it different from those working in the Brazilian jungle? How is it different from those in the Venezuelan jungle, working alone in indigenous communities for months? How is it different from those serving in African villages? I have been lucky enough to have experienced another part of Africa. I lived, for example, in the capital of Mozambique, working in a provincial intensive therapy center, but I had colleagues who were living on the border, in the jungle, in temperatures reaching 48 degrees… What’s the difference? The difference is that this was a high-profile international mission, which received the importance it deserved. It’s true that you have to have courage to say I’m going, and I am going to fight it, that’s undeniable, but it was just another task.
“We don’t need rewards, the acknowledgement of our willingness to be here is enough, and that our people speak of us is the greatest recognition. If something material comes at some point, it is welcome, as we still have needs, but I don’t believe I deserve it, that they are obliged to give me something. The Five were in prison for 16 years and at no time did they think of this sort of thing.
“The people need individuals who lead by example. I have had the good fortune, the personal privilege of having spoken with Vilma, with Raúl himself, perhaps he doesn’t even remember, as I was a doctor on a convoy with them. I have spoken with Fidel three or four times, like I am speaking to you now. They are true heroes, and I don’t see them speaking of their heroism, their bravery. In order to gain respect you don’t have to feel or believe yourself to be a hero. What I would like people to recognize is that I am a true revolutionary, firm in my principles. That is enough. And there are many such people in Cuba, very many. Those who everyday, get up at 12:00 am to make the bread that I am going to eat in the morning, those who cut sugarcane for decades, so that we would have food, they are without a doubt, heroes.
I RAISED MY HAND AND LATER ASKED WHY…                         
“I served on a mission in Nicaragua in 1979, one month after the triumph of their Revolution. They triumphed on July 19, and on August 17 the first Cuban brigade arrived. I stayed there until 1981, in Puerto Cabezas, on the Atlantic coast. Imagine, I was the doctor assigned by Daniel Ortega to Fagoth, the leader of the counterrevolution on the Atlantic coast. I was very emotional during the Alba meeting, as Daniel gave me a hug at the end. Nicaragua was where I really became a revolutionary. When I was 17 years old, you couldn’t listen to a Beatles song, or go to a bar, or be in the streets late at night. And despite the fact that my family had been affiliated with the July 26 Movement, that my father and sister had been in the Sierra, I was a rebel, and I didn’t understand. I liked rock music and had longhair. But I had been educated in the principles of the Revolution and one day they told me: there is this situation, I raised my hand and began. I learned to value Cuba. Being outside of Cuba, I learned to value the Revolution. Afterwards, I never signed up for collaborative missions, it seemed absurd to me, until Fidel calld upon doctors to go to the United States, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We were selected among the first 150. Later the brigade grew to 1,500. In the end we didn’t go to the United States, for various reasons, but Fidel spoke at the Ciudad Deportiva, a moment I still remember. But then the earthquake in Pakistan occurred and the floods in Mexico and Guatemala. The brigade was divided up. I went to Pakistan, with the first group, the majority military doctors and some civilians with specific experience in these types of events. At that time, Bruno Rodríguez, inquired as to my willingness to go directly to East Timor. I was one of those who said “Here we are,” I raised my hand thinking I wouldn’t be chosen as I was getting ready to return to Cuba, and I was selected. I was in East Timor for two years. Later came the earthquake in Haiti and they asked for volunteers. On that occasion I raised my hand and later wondered why.
Well, this was on the 10th and on the 11th or 12th we were in Haiti, and I led the brigade’s intensive therapy unit. On my return, as a reward, they told me that I needed to participate in a “collaboration” effort, as all the missions I had served on had been for wars, or disasters and so I spent three years in Mozambique.
“A little later this epidemic took hold, I had heard of Ebola, I know Africa, I had treated hemorrhagic fevers in Mozambique, and I raised my hand, and here I am. Nothing special, right? This is life. While I have strength and they accept me, I will go where I am needed.”
Traitor vs. Patriot

Traitor vs. patriot

 

By James Thompson

 

Much has been made in the right wing, bourgeois media, about who is a traitor and who is a patriot in the United States today. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other bourgeois cheerleaders connect the dots by declaring that communists/socialists are traitors and the right wing fringe of the GOP are patriots.

 

Before we examine this proposition, it is important to clarify the definition of the terms.

 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a traitor as:

 

“a person who is not loyal to his or her own country, friends, etc. : a person who betrays a country or group of people by helping or supporting an enemy”

 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a patriot as:

 

“a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for his or her country”

 

The bourgeois media sidesteps these definitions when identifying traitors or patriots. They also failed to clarify who constitutes a “country.”

 

When examining these concepts, it is important to keep in mind that a “country” is composed of its residents. In the United States, the populace is composed of very diverse groups who have different interests. There are many ethnic groups in the United States to include Anglos, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans and many others. People also belong to various socio-economic strata to include bourgeois and proletarians, in other words owners of the means of production and workers. Another way to put it is wealthy and poor.

 

Some people have drawn attention to the fact that the 1% owns the vast majority of the wealth in the United States and the rest is divided among the 99%. Many people have pointed to the vast inequality in personal wealth in the United States.

 

When examining the concepts of traitor and patriot, it is important to keep in mind which socio-economic sector of the population to which the individual is loyal. It is also important to consider the policies advocated by the individual in question and how these policies apply to the interests of the various sectors of the population.

 

For example, Sen. Ted Cruz, who just announced his candidacy for the position of President of the United States, has taken very strong positions from the starting line. He has made clear that he favors shutting down the US government, especially the IRS. He has also taken an uncompromising anti-immigrant stance, even though he, himself, is an immigrant. Ted Cruz was born in Canada.

 

Let us examine Sen. Cruz in terms of the traitor/patriot dialectic.

 

What would it mean to the people of the United States if the federal government was shut down? It would mean that all social programs to include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs, Federal Bureau of prisons, Federal Aviation Administration to include air traffic controllers, federal highway programs, public health service, the military, Bureau of Indian affairs, to nothing for the executive branch of the government, legislative branch and judiciary. Also, the border patrol would be shut down. This element of his policies is particularly contradictory. In other words, Sen. Cruz advocates chaos. It should be remembered that the IRS is the agency that provides the funding which makes it possible for this country to function as a sovereign nation.

 

Most working people with any understanding of the functioning of the United States easily understand that the eradication of the federal government would result in extraordinary hardship for workers and their families. Meanwhile, the people in the 1% would benefit tremendously from the eradication of the federal government. It would mean lower taxes and lower labor costs. For the working class, the eradication of the federal government would mean lower wages and lower social benefit programs. In other words, only the wealthy would be able to afford education for their children, only the wealthy would be able to afford healthcare, the criminal justice system would be reduced and travel would become very difficult or impossible if one was not extremely wealthy. Discrimination against immigrants also benefits the 1% because both immigrant and citizen workers can be manipulated to accept lower wages

 

So, Sen. Cruz’ positions would clearly define him as a patriot to the 1% and a traitor to the 99%.

 

Conversely, for example, Sen. Bernie Sanders who advocates an expansion of social programs and a reduction in the inequality of income could be considered a traitor to the 1% and a patriot to the 99%.

 

In the coming elections, it will be important for people to ask themselves the question “Which side are you on?” and vote accordingly.

Grover Norquist Sees Bi-Partisan Doc Fix Deal as “Model of Success” in Privatizing Medicare
| March 25, 2015 | 8:04 pm | Analysis, Health Care, National, political struggle | Comments closed

 

by Kay Tillow

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have worked out a deal, a permanent “doc fix” that would repeal automatic cuts in Medicare payments to physicians.  Their bi-partisan solution, if enacted, will plunge a stake into the heart of traditional Medicare, according to health policy expert Don McCanne, MD, of Physicians for a National Health Program.

 

Social Security Act amendments passed more than a decade ago once again threaten to slash Medicare payments to physicians, this time by 21.2%, as of April 1, 2015.  These provisions require automatic cuts based on a formula called the “sustainable growth rate.”

Each time these cuts threaten to kick in, Democrats and Republicans alike look for a solution to stop the harmful cuts.  Now Boehner and Pelosi have agreed on a permanent solution, a plan that stops those cuts, but at the unacceptable price of inflicting devastating damage on Medicare.

The Boehner/Pelosi-backed bill, HR 1470 “SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2015” is cosponsored by progressive James McDermott (D-WA), anti-Medicare Republican Paul Ryan (R-WI), and seven others from both parties.  The bill would replace the current formula for physician reimbursements with a new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

MIPS is an administrative nightmare, says McCanne.

Expensive consultants will game the system bringing in additional incentive payments while those who work with disadvantaged patient populations will find it difficult to score higher points, predicts McCanne.  Those who serve less wealthy populations will see negative payment adjustments by up to 9%.

MIPS robs from the professionals who are trying to make the system work for their patients and gives the spoils to those who likely have consultants to show them how to game the system, says McCanne.

MIPS will apply only to traditional Medicare, promoting an exodus of physicians from traditional Medicare into the private for-profit Medicare Advantage plans.

The deal would also reward remote patient-monitoring and telehealth as clinical practice improvement activities, reports Darius Tahir of Modern Healthcare.   That can create big bucks for health information technology but does not portend well for patients who need hands on caring professionals.

According to The Hill’s Scott Wong and Peter Sullivan, the deal will be paid for through a combination of means testing — that is, making wealthier seniors pay more for Medicare — and reforms to the supplemental health insurance plans known as Medigap.

Medigap policies would have to make the patients pay the first $250, providing the “skin in the game,” that ugly, inhumane concept so popular with insurance companies. The further means testing of Medicare threatens its broad based popular support as a benefit for all.

“The increased beneficiary cost-sharing included in the SGR reform proposal could work hand-in-hand with the larger House GOP Medicare plan by prodding seniors to choose the lower-cost private Medicare plans envisioned under the budget blueprint. That would advance their long-held goal of turning Medicare into a privatized, means-tested welfare program and getting the government out of the health insurance business,” reports Harris Meyer in Modern Healthcare.

Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform and known for wanting to shrink government small enough to be drowned in a bathtub, likes the Boehner/Pelosi deal.  Norquist says the “doc fix” deal could be a “model of success” for a larger entitlement deal.

The bill, negotiated in secrecy, is being steamrolled and is predicted to come to a vote this week.  Those who cherish Medicare as our nation’s best yet health program should sound the alarm.  A stab in the heart of Medicare is not a compromise but a complete and disastrous sell-out.

Article originally appeared on Daily Kos.