The growing migration wave that surrounds Cuba constitutes one of the major causes put forward by the regime before shortage of blood and its derivatives in the island’s health system.
In this sense, the official newspaper Giron, of the province of Matanzas, outlined this Wednesday the difficulties that the monthly extraction program is experiencing due, mainly, to the lack of resources and people of appropriate age willing to donate.
The text, which quotes Dr. José Ignacio Alonso Martínez, director of the Minerva Duarte Provincial Blood Bank, points out that The territory is going through difficult times and alludes to the recurring excuse “of the imperial blockade”as well as population aging, the growth of migration and socioeconomic difficulties.
The adverse panorama is palpable on social networks: several Cuban families have used this route to save their lives or those of their relatives with voluntary extractions.
This is a direct consequence of the significant decrease in the number of donorswhich between 1990 and 2019 went from approximately 389,000 to 209,000, says the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
In fact, the first quarter of 2024 recorded an incompliance with the program. However, Alonso recognized a slight increase in April (1501), which benefited the Oncology services, the Maternal and Child Program and the emergency surgical system.
Within the framework of the Voluntary Donor Day (June 6 to 14)the doctor emphasized that the call to donate blood at any time remains, but the constant push of the Communist Party, the local government, the mass organizations (CDR, FMC- ANAP) and the unions is necessary.
Two months ago, petitions for a girl and an injured young man in need of blood, while activist Yoelkis Torres Tápanes turned to the networks so that his mother could have surgery at the end of 2023 in Matanzas.
In March, Another Cuban begged for help because his mother has been waiting for more than a week: “I need a blood donation in Pilón, Granma. There are donors and supposedly in the hospital there are no blood bags,” explained Internet user Alexis Vargas in a video that he published on Facebook.
