January 3, 2024
photo: Minsap
For Cuban children, all love and dedication is not enough. That is why translating the efforts and commitments of more than 400,000 health workers throughout the country into tangible results allowed Cuba to reduce its infant mortality rate to 7.1 per 1,000 live births in 2023.
As we begin 2024, what may seem more than simple figures, data and flat statistics, sums up the dedication and devotion of those who, in their daily work, draw smiles and hope in Cuban families. These are hours, days and long nights of sacrifice, medical guards, specialized consultations, community and intersectoral work, home visits and accompaniment to mothers, among other permanent protocols of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).
While the world shows alarming and sad figures, even in developed countries, this decrease in infant deaths in Cuba is, without fear of being mistaken, a gift to the people, because it is a matter of lives saved, of defending the most precious thing that the human being possesses, and much more if it is a matter of newborns.
Dr. Catherine Chibás Pérez, National Head of the Maternal and Infant Program (PAMI), even though she cannot avoid the pain of each death, speaks with pride that there were 74 fewer deaths than in 2022, when a rate of 7.5 was reported. “Today there are 6 provinces with numbers below the country’s average, with the best indicators corresponding to Pinar del Río with 3.1; Artemisa with 3.9; Holguín with 4.7; Sancti Spíritus with 4.8; Villa Clara with 5.7 and Matanzas with 6.9.”
2023 showed that 25 municipalities reported no deaths under one year of age, corresponding 4 to Pinar del Río (Mantua, Sandino, San Luis and Guanes); 4 to Artemisa (Guanajay, Güira de Melena, Alquízar and Candelaria); 1 to La Habana (Regla); 1 to Mayabeque (San Nicolás) and 4 to Matanzas (Martí, Pedro Betancourt, Calimete and Los Arabos).
“In the case of other territories, She goes on to explain, although they do not manage to show rates below the national average, it is encouraging to observe how they improve in proportion to their behavior during the year 2022: for example Havana, where it decreases from an infant mortality rate of 9, 5, in 2022, to 7.9, in 2023; Santiago de Cuba, which from a rate of 9.9 now has 8.0; Guantanamo, which drops from 9.7 to 9.0, and finally Mayabeque, by managing to decrease from 12.2 to 9.1 per thousand live births its infant mortality rate in the analyzed period”.
In addressing the subject, the specialist insists on the “human transcendence” of these parameters, on the realization of so many dreams and longings and on the multiple joys that each of these numbers provides to Cuban families, and especially to the medical teams, in a complex and challenging stage for all.
According to preliminary data, at the end of the year, the MINSAP’s Directorate of Medical Records and Statistics reported 90,374 live births, and a decrease in the preschool mortality rate, from 4.1 to 3.6 per 10,000 inhabitants, with 35 fewer deaths in this age group; while the school mortality rate also decreased from 2.4 to 2.1 per 10,000 inhabitants, representing 28 deaths less than in 2022.
Similarly, the good news extends to the maternal mortality rate in Cuba, which drops from 40.9 in 2022 to 38.7 per 100,000 live births in 2023. Achievements of a joint work in health institutions, from the introduction of technological innovations in obstetric care; greater follow-up of high risk; differentiated evaluation of women; and other notable strategies for the reduction of negative parameters in what for the sector is a priority and commitment of the Revolution.
Strategies, Responsibilities and Commitment to Life
“Saving the lives of patients and their offspring, counteracting the disastrous effect of the blockade and the associated lack of resources, demonstrating that with the dedication and love for their profession of our workers and professionals it is possible to achieve better results, was the goal in 2023,” says the National Head of the Maternal and Child Program.
She underscores the determination and efforts of her colleagues to ensure that the nation meets the objectives of the World Summit for Children, by sustaining goal number one of the National Plan of Action, aimed at keeping the infant mortality rate below 8 per 1000 live births, already achieved in advance since the year 2000.
“Countless efforts and dedication were devoted to perinatal conditions, as the main cause of infant mortality in children under one year of age, she said, mainly related to low birth weight, prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation, in addition to congenital malformations and acquired sepsis”.
Constant concerns and pre occupations of PAMI, which made it possible for the infant mortality rate due to congenital defects in 2023, to drop from 1.0 per 1000 live births at the end of 2022, to 0.7. “It is this, among the causes of death of children under one year of age, the one that decreases the most on the Island, he said, compared to the previous one, which equals the data of 2020 and constitutes the lowest recorded for congenital malformations in Cuba and the best indicator of its kind in the Americas.”
It stands out in his assessment how in the last eight years the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been equal or lower than 2% and the conditions that accredited us as the first country that eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV-AIDS and syphilis in the region are maintained.
In this context, Chibás Pérez highlights the updating and implementation of the Family Doctor and Nurse Program; the operation of infant and child consultations and assisted reproduction; the initiatives of the Macro Program for Human Development, Equity and Social Justice; qualified prenatal care; vaccination and childcare programs; “human rights that in Cuba receive priority with the support of the Government and MINSAP, in order to guarantee the welfare of children, pregnant women”.
“The National Health System is very clear about its responsibilities and commitment to the life of each of our women of childbearing age, and is committed in 2024 to continue contributing to the development of the full childhood and adolescence of each Cuban of pediatric age”.
Source: Cuba en Resumen