Fidel castro virus

It is already starting to use interferon nose drops for infection prevention in medical workers. Interferon, considered a potential miracle drug in the s and s, has a special place in Cuba. Castro, whose revolution prioritized health and education and who often took a keen interest in scientific developments, sent Cuban scientists abroad to study its production. They swiftly figured out how to manufacture it at home and the drug was used successfully during a outbreak of hemorrhagic dengue fever.

It now produces most of the drugs used in Cuba as well as more than products for export to more than 50 countries, including a therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer called CIMAvax.

There are now 21 research centers and 32 companies employing some 20, people under the umbrella of the state-run BioCubaFarma. Cuba has not been able to produce enough medicines to fully meet domestic demand in recent years under strict austerity measures.

But the pandemic may present a unique opportunity for the sector to burnish its reputation and generate hard currency. By Sarah Marsh 6 Min Read. None of the children of Castro's older brother, Fidel, who died in , hold government posts. A son-in-law, Gen. Cuba is one of the countries that has changed the least since the end of the Cold War, even as government officials acknowledge the island desperately needs to adapt.

Finding the path to modernizing Cuba's economy will now fall squarely on the shoulders of Miguel Diaz-Canel, Castro's successor as president who is expected to take over as head of the communist party. Cubans are embarking on treacherous sea journeys as the economic crisis worsens.

Trained as an electrical engineer, Diaz-Canel ran local governments in two provinces before becoming minister of higher education and then vice president and president. Diaz-Canel is the first Cuban who was born after the revolution to become president.

Gaining the leadership of the party will further establish the tall, grey-haired technocrat as the political heir to the Castros. But it remains unclear how he differs from his predecessors.

Diaz-Canel has tried to project a more active image to the Cuban public, posting on Twitter regularly. He immediately visited the still-smoldering scene of a passenger plane crash in in Havana that killed people, and he holds cabinet meetings across the island as Fidel Castro used to. CNN granted rare access to Cuban presidential tour The optics may have changed somewhat but Diaz-Canel is a vocal adherent to the ideology that rigid state control of the economy remains the best way forward for Cuba, despite decades of stagnant economic growth.

And any public opposition to the party line, he has said, is the work of Cubans who are "mal nacidos" or born in the wrong country. Even with all the official talk of maintaining the course, Cuba is changing.

Many in Cuba's nascent private sector complain openly about the slow pace of reforms. Artists fed up with official censorship and activists pushing for legislation protecting animal rights have used increased internet access to organize and publicize small protests that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Hide Caption. Castro, center, poses for a photo with his brothers Fidel, left, and Ramon, right, in Santiago de Cuba around Castro speaks in Castro poses for a photo with his wife Vilma at their wedding in Castro speaks to a crowd in Havana on July 26, , at an event marking the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks.

Castro's brother Fidel led the attempted coup against Fulgencio Batista's government. Both brothers were sentenced to 15 years in prison but were released less than two years later as part of an amnesty for political prisoners. The attack on the military barracks is viewed as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. Castro sits next to Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara during a celebration of the July 26th revolution.

Everyone is terrified about the current outbreak of swine flu. Daily photos of Mexican citizens with medical face masks highlight the enormous danger of a pandemic. Yet few are aware that the United States government, acting through the CIA and anti-communist exile operatives, once was involved in deliberately introducing exactly such a disease into Cuba for the purposes of destabilizing the Cuban economy and encouraging domestic opposition to Fidel Castro.