Cuba reports lower child cancer survival rate

A government report released in June said the survival rate for children with cancer had fallen to 65 percent from 85 percent before energy restrictions began in January. Hospitals across the island face shortages of syringes, gauze, vaccines, anesthetics, and spare parts for equipment such as hemodialysis and CT scan machines.

Persistent power outages lasting more than 20 hours, gasoline rationing, and declines in industrial and food production followed the restrictions.

Impact on cancer patients Irisleydis Tristá, a 34-year-old cancer patient from Batabanó, has been unable to obtain a CT scan for seven months because the scanner at Havana’s Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital is broken. After two surgeries and radiation therapy over the past four years, doctors told her they cannot operate again in Cuba due to lack of resources.

“I feel like my life is in danger,” Tristá told The Associated Press. “I don’t know if it has grown. ” Food shortages have also made it difficult for her to follow the diet prescribed by her doctors. Medical specialists and technicians have left the country in large numbers.

Effects on pediatric care Yolainy Romero, a specialist at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology in Havana, said two children have died so far this year. Some patients from distant provinces must return every 21 days for treatment but face delays of a week or more because of fuel shortages.

Adriana Felipe García traveled about 350 kilometers from Sancti Spíritus with her 4-year-old daughter, Nashly Zerquera, for treatment at the hospital. Mario Cruz Peñate, the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization representative in Cuba, said fuel shortages have caused “quite large” disruptions to health services and the continuity of care.