WHO Awards Cuba for Mother-Child Elimination of HIV and Syphilis

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, highlighted on social media platform X the recognition granted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to Cuba for maintaining its validation as a country free of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

The award was presented by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, to Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández, First Deputy Minister of Public Health of Cuba, on behalf of the country. The honor ratifies a public health milestone for the Caribbean nation.

Cuba, which in 2015 became the first country in the world to achieve this landmark, continues to demonstrate that universal health coverage, political commitment, and primary care are pillars for protecting pregnant women and their children, the Cuban president noted.

With this result, the country remains among a group of approximately twenty nations and territories that guarantee the elimination of these diseases in newborns, the result of decades of work by health professionals despite the imposed economic siege, he specified.

“I always wonder how much more we could do for our people and for the world, without the noose of the Genocidal Blockade around our neck,” Díaz-Canel stated in his message on X.