Miami Herald - Thursday, September 17 1987

Starting Oct. 1, every adult admitted to a hospital in Cuba will be tested for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, Hector Terry, a Cuban deputy minister of health, said during a panel discussion at the first international conference in Latin America on the AIDS problem. His statement was reported by Cuban radio in a broadcast monitored Wednesday in Miami.

Terry told participants at the two-day conference that more than a million people have been tested in Cuba so far, with 147 carriers of AIDS virus detected.

In a separate interview in Quito, Terry said the widespread testing of Cuba's population of 10 million includes nearly everyone entering the country and a virtual quarantine for Cubans known to be infected.

"Our country is a poor country," he said. "If many Cubans become infected and sick, I do not know how we would take care of them. It would cost too much. We really have to prevent such a situation."

The meeting in Quito was sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization. It drew 500 specialists and was beamed by television to 500 sites in 30 countries, including Cuba. Children's Hospital of Miami provided the expertise.

Until now, other countries represented at the conference, including the United States, have gone no further than discussing the measures that the Cuban delegate said have been put in practice in his country.

Terry said that the first steps came in 1983, even before human immune deficiency virus, HIV, the agent that causes AIDS, was identified. Cuba banned imported blood and blood products believed even then, and later shown, to transmit the disease, he said, and no Cuban hemophiliacs have become infected.

Once HIV was isolated, scientists developed a blood test to identify those infected with the virus, Terry said, and Cuba has used it on 1.1 million inhabitants.

Of the 147 infected individuals found in Cuba, five Cubans have died of AIDS and one remains ill, Terry said. It usually takes five or more years to show symptoms of the disease after infection.

Cuba is the first country to have tested its population so extensively, according to Pan American Health officials.

Although AIDS initially spread only among homosexual men in Cuba, just as in the United States, it now is spread heterosexually, Terry said. Intravenous drug abuse does not appear to play a significant role and bisexual men appear to have spread the virus into the Cuban heterosexual population, he said.

Cuba has tested pregnant women extensively and, beginning next month, expects to begin testing anyone who enters a hospital or goes to a physician's office, Terry said. U.S. officials have been debating such widespread testing, but a final decision has yet to be made.

The Cubans believe that the virus entered their country in 1982 when a Cuban living in New York City became infected and then spread it to others after returning home, said Francisco Machado, a biochemist working with the Cuban AIDS program.

Every Cuban who was out of the country between 1975 and 1986 was tested for HIV infection, including soldiers returning from Angola, but "we detected a low number of infected people," Terry said. Cuba maintained about 50,000 people, most of them troops, in Africa.

Some scientists and others have speculated that Cuba probably has a higher infection rate than is being reported because so many soldiers had served in Africa, where HIV is widespread. Terry said some soldiers were infected, but not many.

All Cubans returning from abroad are routinely tested. Foreigners intending to stay in Cuba for longer than three months also are tested for HIV infection, Terry said, adding that diplomats and tourists are not tested.

Those Cubans who have been infected with HIV live in a sanitorium in Boyeros, a Havana suburb.The interned Cubans are allowed home visits, he said, but are warned that if they have sexual relations they need to protect their partners.

DESCRIPTORS: statistic; cuba; health; aids
870917
MH870901

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1987. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1987. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .