PAHO Monitores Tuberculosis in Cuba

As part of the Project for the Elimination of Tuberculosis in Low-incidence Countries, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is conducting a virtual visit to Cuba this week.

The goal is to follow up the recommendations of the last ones carried out in the country, in 2015 and 2019, aimed at checking the monitoring of tuberculosis (TB) and the laboratory work related to this disease, respectively, according to a statement published in the organization’s
website.

It is planned to discuss the progress of the elimination project for Cuba and to agree with the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center on TB elimination, of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), its participation in the initiative.

Besides, there will be identified needs of technical advice and there will be designed the next steps.

The visit is part of a three-country planning exercise in the region and the conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a change in format.

Lourdes Suarez, national coordinator of the TB Control Program; Raul Diaz, director of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for the Elimination of TB at the Pedro Kouri Institute, and other specialists from these institutions will participate.

In Cuba, during the last decades, TB has considerably decreased its incidence. An example of this is that, unlike the more than 2,600 sick people reported in 1970, less than 600 are currently registered, and there are no cases in children under one year old.