SLP, Mexico.- The service of radiotherapy The Conrado Benítez Oncological Hospital, in Santiago de Cuba, stopped operating a year ago, interrupting the treatment of some 500 people suffering from cancer.
According to the information disclosed in the media This Wednesday, after more than a year paralyzed due to the breakage of the main equipment, treatment was resumed for an initial group of 60 patients, to whom they hope to provide radiation again, gradually.
Yaquelín Alonso, head of the Oncology area, told the media that they “thoroughly” re-evaluated the patients, in order to select them according to the dictated health criteria.
However, the waiting list has around 500 people who aspire to undergo treatment with the equipment, which favors the destruction of cancer cells and reduces the chances of tumor reappearance in the phase postoperative.
The official press celebrated that the opening of the area included a hospitalization room with 34 beds, “ready to receive patients from complex geographical locations or in situations of economic disadvantage, with the purpose of avoiding the interruption of sessions for various reasons.”
However, the brachytherapy service, for women with gynecological and breast tumors, remains suspended and about 30 patients are waiting for treatment.
In Cuba, cancer has remained one of the main causes of death since 1970, with an increasing trend. Currently, around 146 people die every day on the Island due to this disease, according to statements from Dr. Elías Gracia Medina, head of the National Oncology Network.
The Health Statistical Yearbook (2023) indicated that in 2022, 25,191 people died from malignant tumors in Cuba.
According to Gracia Medina, more than 56,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed each year in the country, which faces a serious crisis in the health sectormarked by the lack of supplies and medicines.
Although timely care and access to adequate treatments are essential to surviving cancer, patients with the disease on the Island also face significant obstacles such as delays in access to specialists, scarcity of resources for diagnosis and treatment, and deterioration. of health facilities.
Likewise, the instability in the production of cytostatics, vital for cancer treatment, was recognized by Emilio Vallín García, general director of the company Laboratorios AICA: “Of the 15 cytostatics that the company produces, four were missing on that date due to problems in financing and the arrival of raw materials and other supplies.”
