Cuba ratifies its commitment and firm will to protect and care for people living with HIV in the country, as well as to share with other nations the experiences and achievements achieved in its prevention, diagnosis, treatment and control, highlighted today the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap).
The organization highlighted the cooperation, for more than three decades, with UNAIDS, and signified the contribution of this Joint United Nations Program in aspects related to advice, acquisition of medicines and capacity building to strengthen Cuba’s fight against HIV. HIV.
The note, published on the Minsap website, described as fruitful a working meeting held between the head of the sector on the island, José Ángel Portal, and the executive director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, who has been visiting Cuba since last Monday. .
In the dialogue, both authorities shared ideas associated with the development of the National Program for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in the largest of the Antilles, which has been put into practice since 1986 and is based on social prevention, with a community, intersectoral and multisectoral, the text refers.
As a result of their actions, it emerged that currently in Cuba 28,643 people live with HIV/AIDS, of which 96.8 percent (%) have treatment; and 89.3% of those who receive the therapy have a suppressed viral load of the disease.
Furthermore, in 2015 the country was certified as the first in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and congenital syphilis, a condition that was revalidated in 2017, 2019 and 2022.
The Minsap adds that this has been possible, among other elements, due to the political commitment of the State to care for people living with HIV/AIDS and the investments it has made for this purpose, as well as the characteristics that distinguish the Health System. of Cuba, based on Primary Care, and a projection towards prevention.
