Cuba’s Scientific Achievements Acknowledged on National Science Day

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Jan 15 (acn) National Science Day was marked in Cuba today with a meeting to acknowledge the advancement made in the sector.

The national meeting to mark the date was held in this central province with the participation of Fernando Gonzalez Bermudez, acting minister of science, technology and environment (CITMA).

The minister highlighted the achievements made in 2008, in particular in the exports of the biotechnology and medical-pharmaceutical industries and also in the replacement of imports with local production.

Among the major results is the registration of the Interferon-Gamma recombinant vaccine for the treatment of the rheumatoid arthritis in young persons, resistant tuberculosis, atypical lung bacterium, among other conditions, said Gonzalez Bermudez.

Likewise, he mentioned the conclusion of the first stage of the clinical trials on a therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of lesions leading to uterine cervix and prostate cancer. In both cases the results were very satisfactory, said the minister.

The Cuban scientific community has the great challenge of further contributing to the economic recovery of the country and to the sustainable development in food production, health, housing construction and other sectors, said CITMA’s acting minister.

More than 100 scientific and technological projects are being carried out in Ciego de Avila, most of them related to agriculture, the protection of natural resources and the use of renewable energy sources.

Reconocen quehacer de comunidad científica cubana Lubia Ulloa Trujillo

First Defibrillating Pacemaker Implanted in Cuban Province

HOLGUIN, Cuba, Jan 15 (acn) The first permanent defibrillating pacemaker implanted in Cuba outside Havana is carried by Alvaro Morgado Martínez, an 82-year old patient from Holguin who suffers from a malignant heart condition.

Morgado's surgery was recently performed at the Vladimir Ilich Lenin hospital in the eastern city of Holguin by Cuban cardiologists Elier Ricardo and Roberto Zayas. After the successful operation the patient was released from the hospital and is now successfully recovering at home.

Dr. Ricardo told the press that such a procedure had been only performed in Havana's Cardiology Institute of Havana previously.

Permanent defibrillating heart pacemakers detect heart arrhythmias and automatically treat them with electrical shocks avoiding the patient's death by restoring the cardiac rhythm.

The implant of each pacemaker, which is performed at no cost to the Cuban patient, is valued from 8 to 12,000 Euros, including the surgical procedure and the pre- and post-surgery care.

Lorenzo Llerena, president of the Cuban Cardiology Society, said the implant of the first automatic defibrillator in Holguin shows the steady development in the specialty reached in the province.

Implantado en Holguín primer marcapaso desfibrilador

Given prizes CITMA 2008

Camagüey, Jan 14 . The results in the science and the technological innovation of 19 investigation works developed in the county of Camagüey, were recognized with the prizes Ministry of the Science, Technology and Environment 2008, in opportunity of the acts for the Day of the Cuban Science, in ceremony made in the protocol living room Nicolás Guillén, of the Square of the General bigger Revolution Ignacio Agramonte and Loynaz, in this city.

Of the current prizes, several were nominated for the recognition National Academy of Sciences of Cuba, among these, Characterization of the features of growth and reproduction for the bovine genotype Chacuba, of the Dr. Angel Ceró Rizo; The teaching of the conservation of the patrimony, of the Doctor Lourdes Gómez Consuegra and Improvement of the Process of Teaching learning of the mathematics, of the Dr. Ramón Blanco Sánchez, to the prize of the Innovation was nominated the investigation of the Dra. María Teresa Machado Durán, under the title of Formation of the culture; a look since the languages and the languages, all these studies and their results come from the University of Camagüey.

In the group are also important investigations of the tecnoscience elaborated by specialists of the institutes of Investigation of Tropical Viandas and Pedagogic Superior José Martí, Ministry of the Agriculture, Forest Company, the centers of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and of Investigation of the Environment of Camagüey, Provincial School of the Party Cándido González and of the Provincial Hospital Manuel Ascunce Domenech.

Established from January 15 1960 by the Commandant in Boss Fidel Castro, the Day of the Cuban Science, proclaimed the indispensable necessity of the scientific development of the country like a strategy for the survival of the Revolution and the projection that could link us with the nations in economic and social progress.

Every year, in opportunity of the anniversary, the CITMA presents in competition the best works of scientific investigation picking up the results of the same ones and its practical and efficient application at the same time. The figures of the 2008 demonstrate the reach of the tecnoscience of Camagüey and the diversity of fields in that it is intruded.