| Year/period | Type of event | Event | Location |
|---|
| 1881 | Discovery | Cuban epidemiologist Carlos Finlay provides evidence that mosquito Aedes aegypti transmits disease to and from humans.[10] | |
| 1898–1902 | Achievement | Yellow fever is virtually eradicated due to the efforts of Clara Maass and surgeon Jesse William Lazear during this period of U.S. presence.[11] | |
| 1950–1955 | Report | Infant mortality rate levels at 80.69 deaths per 1,000 live births, a figure higher than those of Paraguay and Surinam.[12] | |
| 1959 | Political change | End of Cuban revolution and establishment of the socialist state and communist government. Fidel Castro takes office. | |
| 1960 | Publication | Revolutionary and physician Ernesto "Che" Guevara writes crucial essay entitled On Revolutionary Medicine, outlining the future of Cuban healthcare.[13] | |
| 1960 | Policy | The Ministry of Public Health begins a program of nationalization and regionalization of medical services.[14] First U.S. embargo against Cuba.[15] | |
| 1961 | Organization (campaign) | Cuba starts to deploy physicians to work in poor countries around the world, starting with medical brigades to assist during the Algerian War.[16][17] | |
| 1962 | Policy | "Vaccination days" are established with the goal of reaching the entire population. Proving later to be effective in eliminating polio, it is subsequently adopted in other countries as a primary strategy.[18] | |
| 1963 | Policy (Campaign) | The Cuban medical internationalism program is initiated. | |
| 1963 | Foreign policy | U.S. embargo against Cuba prohibits trade in food, medicines, and medical supplies.[16] | |
| 1963 | Achievement | Cuba declares free of polio.[19] | |
| 1965 | Policy | Cuban government creates a system of community-based polyclinics, with aims at providing primary-care, specialty services, and laboratory and diagnostic testing to a catchment area of 25,000 to 30,000 people.[16] | |
| 1969 | Organization (research institute) | Cuban Neuroscience Center (CNEURO) founded.[20] | Havana |
| 1970 | Development | First Kidney transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (Nephrology Institute) |
| 1970 | Policy | The Maternal–Child Programme (Programa Nacional de Atencion Materno-Infantil—PAMI) is launched with the purpose of assuring the health of women of child-bearing age and their children.[18] | |
| 1972 | Organization (alliance) | Cuba becomes a full member of the Soviet-based Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON).[22] | |
| 1972 | Achievement | Cuba declares free of neonatal tetanus.[18] | |
| 1976 | Policy | Fidel Castro elected president. Cuban constitution revision. Article 50: Everyone has the right to health protection and care. The state guarantees this right by providing free medical and hospital care by means of the installations of the rural medical service network, polyclinics, hospitals, preventative and specialized treatment centers; by providing free dental care; by promoting the health publicity campaigns, health education, regular medical examinations, general vaccinations and other measures to prevent the outbreak of disease. All the population cooperates in these activities and plans through the social and mass organizations.[23]
|
|
| 1979 | Achievement | Cuba declares free of diphteria.[18] | |
| 1979 | Organization (medical school) | University of Medical Sciences, Cienfuegos is founded.[24] | Cienfuegos |
| 1982 | Organization (hospital) | Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital (HDCQHA) is founded.[25] | Havana |
| 1984 | Policy | A Family Doctor-and-Nurse Program is launched, by which neighborhood/home clinic model is adopted. The physician and the nurse must live in the neighborhood they're serving. They're also expected to conduct research and present their findings at congresses or in journals.[4][26] |
| 1985 | Development | First heart transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (HDCQHA) |
| 1985–1990 | Report | Infant mortality rate levels at 13.01 deaths per 1,000 live births, the lowest in Latin America.[12] | |
| 1986 | Development | First heart-lung transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (HDCQHA) |
| 1986 | Development | First liver transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (HDCQHA) |
| 1986 | Development | First pancreas-kidney transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (Nephrology Institute) |
| 1989 | Development | First lung transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana |
| 1990 | Development | First heart-lung transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (HDCQHA) |
| 1991 | Crisis | Collapse of Soviet Union and beginning of the so-called Special Period. Soviet funding halts, depriving Cuba from almost all foreign commodities, including pharmaceuticals. An epidemic of optical and peripheral neuropathy, subsequently traced to a sharp decline in protein, vitamins, and some other micronutrients, afflicts at least 50 000 Cubans. Also a modest increase in mortality from infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis, is observed.[18] | |
| 1992 | Foreign policy/crisis | U.S. “Torricelli Bill” tightens embargo against Cuba, thus deepening the severe material shortages and affecting medical care. The number of foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies granted licenses to sell medicines to Cuba start to decline dramatically.[16][27] | |
| 1993 | Achievement | Cuba declares free of measles.[18] | |
| 1994 | Achievement | Cuba declares free of pertussis.[18] | |
| 1994 | Organization (medical school) | Facultad de Ciencias Medicas Sancti Spiritus is founded.[28] | Sancti Spiritus |
| 1994 | Organization (Research institute) | Center of Molecular Immunology (Centro de Inmunología Molecular) or CIM is founded.[29] | Havana |
| 1995 | Achievement | Cuba declares free of rubella and mumps.[18] | |
| 1999 | Organization (medical school) | ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine) is founded.[30] | Havana |
| 2000 | | Kofi Annan: "Cuba's achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. Cuba demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities - health, education, and literacy."[31] | |
| 2002 | Report | Cuba attains the second lowest infant mortality in the Americas, 20% below the U.S. rate for all ethnic groups and also below the rate for white Americans.[18] | |
| 2004 | Organization (program launch) | Operation Miracle is initiated by Cuba jointly with Venezuela, in which medical workers from both countries would perform surgeries for cataracts, glaucoma, and other eye ailments, with the goal of reaching six million operations across the Americas by 2015.[32] | |
| 2005 | Development | First pediatric liver transplant is performed in Cuba.[21] | Havana (HDCQHA) |
| 2005 | Organization (campaign) | Cuba offers to send 1500 medics to New Orleans in response to Hurricane Katrina. Such aid is rejected by the U.S. government.[33][34] | |
| 2006 | Policy | The Cuban government spends about $355 per capita on health, 7.1% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).[16] | |
| 2011 | Achievement | Cuba announces release of the world's first lung cancer vaccine.[35] | |
| 2012 | Development | First Latin American catheter ablation registry established.[36] | |
| 2015 | Achievement | Cuba becomes the first country to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.[37] |
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. PMID 22698011.
Cuba topics
