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COVID-19 battle

Cuba expands studies of lingering after-effects of COVID-19

Cuba expands studies of lingering after-effects of COVID-19
Nearly one million Cubans have suffered a case of COVID-19, and given the after-effects of the disease, their full recovery is a priority for the country

Author: René Tamayo | internet@granma.cu
december 8, 2021 11:12:17


The ingenuity and innovative capacity of Cuban science have been key to the medical attention provided COVID patients. Photo: Estudio Revolución
Nearly one million Cubans have suffered a case of COVID-19, and given the after-effects of the disease, their full recovery is a priority for the country.
A study on the comprehensive rehabilitation of patients with post-COVID-19 sequelae, conducted at the 10 de Octubre Surgical Clinical Hospital, was the focus of attention during a meeting, held the last week of November, of Cuban scientists and the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
These gatherings have become regular events over the past two years, with scientists and experts involved in research and technological innovation reporting on their work in the battle against the coronavirus.
MSc Yulmis Rodríguez Borges presented partial findings of the study, which included patients who had discharged from the hospital at least two weeks, after testing negative for the virus, who experienced moderate disability as a result of symptoms associated with the disease, among other inclusion criteria.
More than 70% were individuals between 50 to 59 years of age or 60 years and over, reflecting the vulnerability of these sectors of the population, long after being infected.
Among the most frequent symptoms reported by the convalescents were severe exhaustion and fatigue during walking and daily activities, shortness of breath, anxiety, joint pain (dorsal, lumbar, shoulders, knees), insomnia and sleep disorders, depression, voice abnormalities and difficulty swallowing.
The results showed that 90% experienced severe exhaustion and fatigue during walking and daily activities; 70% shortness of breath; and 65% anxiety. Radiologist reported that 81.7% showed ground-glass opacity, and 71.7% had x-rays indicating fibrotic tracts in the lungs. One hundred percent experienced a decline in health-related quality of life indicators.
Rodriguez reported that, after the protocol intervention, functional capacity for daily activities and walking improved in most patients; shortness of breath decreased in 100%, and health-related quality of life indicators increased in seven of eight categories.
He emphasized that the findings validate the need to continue providing follow-up attention to these patients and evaluate their evolution in all the areas identified, over the coming months,
Given the potential impact of the study, the President asked about efforts to disseminate the results.
Dr. Leovy Edrey Semino García, the Ministry of Health’s director of Rehabilitation, explained that this is an example of what is being done across the country to treat the lingering after-effects of COVID-19. Work is underway to improve the care provided these patients, making it more comprehensive, re-evaluating programs, which go beyond physical rehabilitation. We are also investigating the main disabling symptoms and early signs of problems, he added, in order to provide more timely care to these patients, almost one million Cuban men, women, and children.
“While we are evaluating convalescents with different after-effects, from mild to severe,” Dr. Semino continued, “We are also conducting other studies, including those of persons who were not infected, but suffered the effects of prolonged confinement, especially older adults.”
The President insisted on the importance of reaching all convalescents with after-effects. This work requires a multidimensional approach, he said, and should include coordination with the Sports, Recreation and Physical Education Institute (Inder) to provide patients differentiated attention in the areas of physical culture and sports, promoting differentiated exercise programs for older adults and others.

Cuba and Angola’s Liberation

Thirty-two years have passed, but Cuba has not forgotten

Return of fallen internationalists commemorated
Thirty-two years have passed, but Cuba has not forgotten. On December 7, 1989, the remains of 2,289 combatants who gave their lives on internationalist missions in Africa were returned to the arms of the homeland

Author: Pedro Ríoseco | internet@granma.cu
december 7, 2021 11:12:53


All the country’s cities received the remains of their prodigal sons, and honored to them in Pantheons of the Fallen established in all municipalities. Photo: Liborio Noval


Thirty-two years have passed, but Cuba has not forgotten. On December 7, 1989, the remains of 2,289 combatants who gave their lives on internationalist missions in Africa were returned to the arms of the homeland, in an effort entitled Operation Tribute.
All the country’s cities received the remains of their prodigal sons, and honored to them in Pantheons of the Fallen established in all municipalities.
General Antonio Maceo’s mausoleum, in El Cacahual, hosted the symbolic national ceremony with the remains of 16 internationalists, one from each provinces and the Isle of Youth special municipality, on the date when the Titan and his faithful assistant Panchito Gomez Toro fell in battle against the Spanish colonialists.
“These men and women, to whom we give an honorable burial today, in the warm land where they were born, died for the most sacred values, they died fighting against colonialism and neocolonialism, racism and apartheid, plundering and exploitation of the peoples of the Third World, for independence and sovereignty, for the right to wellbeing and development of all peoples, for socialism, for internationalism, for the revolutionary and dignified homeland that Cuba is today,” said Fidel at that time, reaffirming the commitment follow their example.
Of these internationalists, 2,085 were participating in military missions in the defense of the nascent independence of the People’s Republic of Angola, and 204 took on civilian tasks, as part of the 377,033 Cuban volunteers who fought in that country during the 15 and a half years of Operation Carlota.
The Cuban government always informed families of the death of each internationalist (in combat, due to accidents or illness), but it was impossible, in the middle of the war, to repatriate their corpses and bury them in their hometowns. But the Revolution did not forget any of its sons and daughters, and to fulfill that humanitarian commitment, Operation Tribute was organized.
As Army General Raul Castro Ruz said on December 12, 1976, “From Angola we will take with us only the intimate friendship that unites us to that heroic nation, the gratitude of its people and the mortal remains of our dear brothers and sisters who fell in the line of duty.” And so it was.

Who We Are

The Cuban people, neither hungry nor defeated

The Cuban people, neither hungry nor defeated, as honorable as ever
Hope of achieving on November 15 what enemies of the Revolution failed to accomplish in July didn’t last long

Author: Raúl Antonio Capote | informacion@granmai.cu
december 3, 2021 12:12:03



Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus
After the defeat of July 11 and subsequent attempts to keep the spark of “insurrection” alive, as one of its spokesmen called the pyrrhic attempt, the counterrevolution, its Miami overseers and masters in Washington desperately set out to save what they could from the shipwreck. The hope of achieving on November 15 what they had failed to accomplish in July didn’t last long. The plan was fallacious to begin with, a deception, another swindle.
Pentagon and CIA analysts knew it, government advisors and the Miami “businessmen” were aware, but it seems that, as hope is the last thing to be lost… It could happen, they believed, perhaps the “perfect storm” with the raging winds of a tightened blockade, subversion, the pandemic and a deepening world economic crisis, would weaken Cubans to the point that finally, exhausted by the hardship, they would explode and self-destruct.
It would be a kind of mass suicide which they would contemplate comfortably from their armchairs; just as they are willing to enjoy the self-inflicted death of a people broken by hunger, disease and slander.
It would be a kind of mass suicide that they would contemplate comfortably from their armchairs; just as they are prepared to enjoy the self-inflicted death of a people broken by hunger, disease and slander.
More than a few interested parties and shareholders in the business of hating Cuba prayed, in the privacy of their offices, to U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, Edward Lansdale and company, that the predictions they made in the 1960s would finally come true.
But neither prayers nor glasses of spiritual water, which we know, from reliable sources, some of the so-called Cuban-American politicians placed on their altars, saved them from defeat.
The implementation of the United States’ government policy toward Cuba by the Trump’s administration, enthusiastically continued by current President Joe Biden – who intends to destroy the Revolution following an extremely hostile strategy combined with unconventional warfare – was unraveling in the country’s streets and plazas.
Before the July 11 events, U.S. special services conducted a thorough study of the cultural stereotypes of different sectors of the Cuban population. A variety of social groups were the object of investigation and analysis with a view toward identifying their weak spots, to create a road map that would ensure the effectiveness of the CIA’s cultural warfare and political-ideological subversion.
Anti-Cuban influencers, cyber character assassinators and other species propagating in the digital environment, paid activists in the ideological war, based on the information provided by special service think tanks, worked tirelessly on exploiting weaknesses and shortcomings, identified conditioned responses, fears and stereotypes.
Millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars were spent to isolate Cuba and deprive the country of international solidarity through a ferocious campaign to discredit the Revolution, allowing the U.S. government to act with impunity and justify the barbarity they were planning.
A real fortune was squandered to buy consciences, pay mercenaries and hire criminals, the latter essential to assaults on institutions, looting, burning people alive, sowing terror and chaos, as they have attempted in other Latin American countries.
Like magicians, they pulled from their hats prefabricated leaders, made from molds already used in other countries, and bet on a replica of a pocket-sized Václav Havel, with more dramatic pretensions than courage.
Almost nothing could be saved from the 7-11 shipwreck. The teetering ship nevertheless remained afloat, despite taking on water, but then ran aground and sank in November, leaving a nauseating stench reminiscent of a long ago April.
The ridiculous ended up being grotesque: henchmen abandoned by their boss, who made a swift, undercover retreat, without even saying “Hold on, I’ll be back soon,” while a musician, if we can call him that, was awarded a Grammy in the U.S. dressed in a kind of royal cloak. A full blown demonstration of disrespect for our flag and unbridled machismo, with his partner tied to him by a strip of fabric, in an apparent act of submission.
No blood was shed on the country’s streets, as they had hoped. Cubans reacted with absolute decorum, neither hungry or defeated, naked or barefoot, honorable, as always, united and stronger in the face of aggression, unscathed by slander and lies.