Study on Disabled People


HAVANA, Cuba, April 1 (acn) Cuba will conclude a study on disabled people in all the countries that make up the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA) regional integration and cooperation bloc before the end of the current year.

The announcement was made on Wednesday in Havana by the island’s Deputy Public Health Minister, Marcia Cobas, during a ceremony to welcome the 38 members of a Cuban medical brigade that carried out a clinical-genetic, pedagogical and psycho-social study among disabled people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.


Speaking to ACN, Cobas said that with the end of the study in this Caribbean nation, the Cuba-led initiative has included over a million people in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador, and she announced that the study will soon begin in Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.


Meanwhile, Dr. Miriam Portuondo, coordinator of the program in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, explained that, from March 1st to the 26th, a total of 11,106 houses were visited and more than 2,000 disabled people were screened.

“In this sister nation, one in every 47 people live with a severe disability and most cases are among the male population,” she added.


Some of the main disabilities found are related to systemic diseases such as diabetes, mellitus, which sometimes leads to the amputation of lower limbs and intellectual disabilities.

http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles/2010/0401ALBA.htm