Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Meglio esportare dottori e medicine che armi e guerre

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4583668.stm
 Medical know-how boosts Cuba's wealth
By Tom Fawthrop
In Havana
Cuba - so long dependent on tourism, the export of cigars and nickel for its
survival - has quietly built an impressive healthcare sector that could
transform its troubled economy.
Health ministry officials say Cuba's $1.8bn (£1bn) and growing tourism
industry will soon be overtaken as the number one foreign exchange earner
by biotechnology joint ventures, vaccine exports and the provision of
health services to other countries.
Successful clinical trials in several countries have already established
Cuba as a world leader in cancer research and treatment.
Last year, Cuba's health budget was boosted by a doubling in biotech exports
to $300m, and the country earns fees from foreign patients and from
exporting other medicinal products and diagnostic equipment and machines.
Also in 2005, a joint venture biotechnology plant was opened in China, with
Havana providing the transfer of cancer treatment technology, and this year
Cuba is eyeing the West:
German biotech firm Oncoscience is holding clinical trials of anti-cancer
drug TheraCIM h_R3, which it hopes to get registered, and Californian
Cancervax is expected to test another Cuban cancer treatment after
Washington agreed to make an exception to its trade embargo.
"If we get access to the Western market, then this hi-tech sector could
become the locomotive of the entire Cuban economy," says Dr Rolando Perez,
scientist at the Centre of Molecular Immunology (CIM).
Engine for growth
Ever since taking power in 1959, Cuban President Fidel Castro has wanted to
create a global medical power, though it was only after the collapse of its
financial backer, the Soviet Union, in 1991 that the health sector came to
be seen as a potential source of income.
During the 1990s, Cuba became the first country to develop and market a
vaccine for meningitis B, and this sent export earnings soaring. Then there
was a surge in exports of its hepatitis B vaccine, which is currently being
shipped to 30 countries, including China, India, Russia, Pakistan and Latin
American countries.
Now, the hope is that the healthcare sector will help transform Cuba from a
poor developing economy, which is groaning under the weight of more than 40
years of punitive US trade sanctions and suffering due to decades of
economic mismanagement under President Castro.
Whatever the cause of Cuba's difficulties, its many dilapidated buildings,
ramshackle shops and frequent power cuts bear witness to the way its
crumbling, underdeveloped economy coexists with the country's advanced
medical and scientific sector.
Cuba's development model is based on harnessing the nation's wealth in human
resources and science to a create a knowledge -based economy focused around
health, according to the 79-year-old president.
"Someone might think that we are going bankrupt," President Castro said at a
recent conference.
"No. We are improving. Human capital is worth far more than financial
capital."
No brain drain
President Castro first started investing in biotechnology during the 1980s.
Two decades on, Cuba's prospects in a post-Castro era seem rosy, with its
expanding health sector and an embryonic knowledge-based economy.
But this success story has also given rise to concerns.
What if Cuba's medical professionals decide to follow in the footsteps of
several Cuban sport stars who in the past have gone to the US, lured by
substantial financial rewards.
"We know that in the US scientists are highly paid. I receive only 665 pesos
a month (less than US$40)," observes Dr Perez.
But "we work in a environment of fulfilment and innovation", he says,
pointing towards a laboratory full of scientists.
"You are free to interview any of them.
"We are highly motivated, not by money and commercial profit, but by a
commitment to saving lives. We have not lost any of them. Nobody has
defected to the US."
International medics
That is not to say Cuban healthcare professionals do not work abroad.
Humanitarian missions in 68 countries are manned by 25,000 Cuban doctors,
and medical teams have assisted victims of both the Tsunami and the
Pakistan earthquake.
In addition, last year 1,800 doctors from 47 developing countries graduated
in Cuba, and scholarships are on offer to developing country medical
students studying at home.
Other overseas missions, such as in South Africa where Cuba is assisting the
national health system, bring in revenue for Cuba's health ministry, and
Venezuela has agreed to trade the services of Cuban doctors for oil.
Under a recent agreement, Cuba has sent 14,000 medics to provide free health
care to people living in Venezuela's barrios , or shantytowns, where many
have never seen a doctor before.
In addition Venezuelan patients can receive free surgery and specialised
treatment in Cuban hospitals.
In return, Venezuela is slashing its oil bill to Cuba by up to a quarter
over a 15-year period in a deal estimated to be worth up to $1bn, thus
securing the supplies of 90,000 barrels of oil a day to the cash-strapped
Cuban economy.
Domestic shortage
Nevertheless, in Cuba, where people have become accustomed to a free
comprehensive healthcare system, this huge outflow of doctors has sparked
complaints and grumbles.
According to the World Health Organization, Cuba provides a doctor for every
170 residents, ahead of the US where the ratio is 1 to 188.
These days, though, Cubans have to make do with fewer doctors and are
sometimes forced to queue to get medical attention.
Moreover, some hospital wings have been taken over and some hotels have been
closed to accommodate an influx of eye-surgery patients, following last
September's launch of 'Operation Miracle' which set out to restore the
eyesight of an estimated 6 million poor people in Latin America and the
Caribbean who were suffering from cataracts and other debilitating
eye-diseases.
To cancer expert Dr Perez, it is a worthwhile trade-off.
"I want to see all Cuban cancer patients receive free treatment, so we need
money to finance our health service and to improve our living standards,"
he says.
"Our science is part of the economy." 

 
Cuba da ultimo baluardo veterocomunista e terzomondista ad economia basata
sul biotech e sull'assistenza ai bisognosi, un bello schiaffo a chi critica
Castro (DS compresi)

 In Havana
#_Esatto!
Castro ha saputo investire , da lungo  tempo, in intelletto e preparazione
tecnica specializzata. Questo e` anche un esempio di come la preparazione
didattica( e l'assistenza sanitaria), *accessibile a tutti*, alla lunga, da'
i suoi frutti.
Giano