Cuba to start clinical trials on drug against renal cancer

Cuba Heberferon

A clinical trial with Heberferon will begin this year in Cuba in about 300 patients with renal carcinoma, announced Dr. Iraldo Bello, expert who developed the product at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB by its Spanish acronym).

Bello told ACN that this formulation, a synergistic combination of recombinant human alpha-2b and gamma interferons, has been applied with good results against basal cell carcinoma, the most frequent skin cancer.

He added that this year they will also conduct a clinical trial with Heberferon in patients with malignant brain tumors.

Preclinical studies and other pilot research in humans show that the results with this product, unique of its kind in the world, can be very promising in these two indications, said the expert.

The CIGB and the National Cancer Control Group develop workshops in which oncologists, pathologists and other specialists participate to educate physicians about the use of the drug, which has already been applied to 800 Cuban patients with basal cell carcinoma.

Heberferon is one of the leading lines of Cuban biotechnology, and according to Dr. Bello, he spent more than 20 years in the research of this product, which has raised interest in several countries.

Dr. Olaine Gray, national coordinator of Special Working Force on Skin Cancer, told ACN that in the past decades, skin cancer has increased in the world and is among the first locations of this malignant disease.

She warned that Cuba reports about five thousand new cases each year, with a tendency to increase.

Skin cancer´s main trigger is the excess of sun, specifically the ultraviolet radiation, noted the specialist.

Source: Cuban News Agency

Mozart’s Costa Violin will be played in Cuba

Mozart violin cuba

The original instrument accompanies the Austrian Federal President on his tour abroad

At the beginning of March Federal President Heinz Fischer undertakes one of his last trips abroad during his term of office and travels to Cuba. Johannes Honsig-Erlenburg, president of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation and Gabriele Ramsauer, director of the Mozart museums, will accompany him on this visit together with an original Mozart instrument, the so-called Costa Violin. Two concerts on this instrument will be given during the Federal President’s stay.

Frank Stadler, leader of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, will play two concertos on the Mozart instrument, accompanied by the Youth Orchestra of the Lyceum Mozartiano de la Habana in the Oratorio San Felipe Neri. This orchestra was founded on the initiative of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation in 2009. Through its continued support the idea of this orchestra has evolved as an exemplary project of international cultural exchange which has been intensified over the last three years by a subsidy from the European Union. As part of the support for this project, the first international Mozart Festival took place in autumn 2015 in Havana.

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Obama to Make Historic Visit to Cuba

Barcak Obama and Raul Castro

The restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States is widely seen as one of Obama's most important legacies as U.S. president. 

U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Cuba in the coming weeks, a senior administration official said Wednesday, marking the first trip by a sitting president since 1928. 

The trip is being viewed as a means to cement what Obama sees as one of his more important legacies as president: the normalization of relations with Cuba after five decades as enemies.  The trip to Cuba is also sure to have an effect on the ongoing primary race.  

Two of the Republican contenders, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, are of Cuban descent and have vocally opposed the Obama administration's efforts at relaxing the illegal, decades-old blockade on Cuba.  Both were quick to condemn Obama's visit.

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The US blockade and Raul’s visit to France

Raul Castro and Francoise Hollande

by Daniesky Acosta

From 31st January and 2nd February, Cuban President Raul Castro will make an official visit to France, where he will meet with the President of that country, Françoise Hollande. Last May, Hollande became the first French President to visit Cuba. In addition to meeting with his counterpart, he called for an end to the US blockade against Cuba. The blockade continues.

Many Cubans are tired of hearing about the blockade, especially because most of them have lived their entire lives under its impact. The Cuban government has repeatedly tried to explain the difficulties it confronts on a daily basis. Although it appears simple, there are still those who don’t want to understand the magnitude of the problem.

I have personally campaigned against the US blockade and thought that it would be difficult for anything related with this theme to surprise me. That was not the case, however, and I have written a short summary below of a recent experience that occurred when I tried to send a small sum of money to Cuba via the British bank HSBC.

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Cuba Wins Rights to Sell Havana Club

Havana Club

The ruling means Cubaexport and French drinks giant Pernod Ricard are poised to sell their Cuban-made rum in the United States after the U.S. blockade on Cuba comes to an end.

Cubaexport and partner Pernod Ricard have won the rights to sell the rum brand Havana Club in the United States, after legal wranglings with Bacardi that spanned nearly two decades.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office confirmed Thursday that the Cuban state company has the right to use the Havana Club trademark and​ remain the official distributor of the spirited drink in the U.S. The brand has been sold under the Bacardi guise since 1994, when the drinks company purchased its naming rights in the U.S., and starting producing the liquor from Puerto Rico.

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Take action: NHS lies about Cuba

Rock around the Blockade has launched a campaign to expose the lie by the NHS, British media and politicians that Britain will be the first country in the world to introduce a national and publicly funded vaccination against Meningitis B. Cuba has provided this protection to its population for nearly 30 years - and was the first country in the world to do so. While Britain's Meningitis B vaccination programme is to be applauded, the censorship of Cuba's pioneering role must be challenged.

NHS

The NHS choices website is claiming that England is now the 'first country in the world to offer a national and publically funded Men B vaccination programme' This is a bareface lie. 25 years ago, Cuba introduced a vaccine appropriate for the local strain of the Meningitis B. The vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC administered in Cuba since 1989 has been shown to be a safe and effective vaccine for controlling epidemic outbreaks provoked by Neisseria meningitidis of serogroups B and C. This is corroborated by the more than 55 million doses administered and the licensing of the vaccine in 15 countries. The Meningitis B vaccine has since been part of a national vaccine programme for children. 

Here is a link to Cuba’s national immunisation programme from 2007 where you can clearly see Meningitis B is routine. Below is a video interview with Dr Campa Huergo, from Cuba's Finlay Institute, who created the Meningitis B vaccine in the 1980s.

This has been pointed out to Kathryn Bingham, the editor of the NHS Choices website, however she is refusing to correct the article.

Complain about this scandalous fraudulent claim using the template letter below:

Dear Kathryn Bingham - editor of NHS choices website

Your article claims that England is the first country in the world to offer a national and publicly funded Meningitis B vaccination programme. This is incorrect as 25 years ago, Cuba introduced a vaccine appropriate for the local strain of the Meningitis B. The vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC administered in Cuba since 1989 has been shown to be a safe and effective vaccine for controlling epidemic outbreaks provoked by Neisseria meningitidis of serogroups B and C. This is corroborated by the more than 55 million doses administered and the licensing of the vaccine in 15 countries. The Meningitis B vaccine has since been part of a national vaccine programme for children. Your article  is erroneous and needs to be edited immediately. Cuba will always remain the first country to introduce a Meningitis B vaccine, part of the publicly-funded national programme.

Here is a link to Cuba’s national immunisation programme from 2007 where you can clearly see Meningitis B is routine.

We welcome seeing the corrected article. 

Yours

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Tel: 020 7003 3071
Twitter: twitter.com/NHSChoices 

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Cuba in the CELAC-EU Summit and the NGO wolves

Police brutality in Spain
Police brutality in Spain

By Daniesky Acosta

On 10 and 11 June, the Second Summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union (CELAC-EU) takes place in Brussels, with the aim of assessing bi-regional relations between both parties. At the conclusion of the Summit, between the 15 and 16 June, Cuba and the EU will resume negotiations on the bilateral Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between them. One of the anticipated topics for discussion is the so-called Common Position that the EU has taken against Cuba since 1996 and that has obstructed the improvement of relations, because of its interventionist nature which mirrors the US blockade of Cuba.

For its part, the frustrated anti-Cuban ultra-right-wing continues its efforts to boycott any rapprochement between the US and its allies, and Cuba. At the last Summit of the Americas in Panama, when Presidents Obama and Raul Castro met, there was no lack of provocations from these small counter-revolutionary groups. Even the murderer of Che Guevara participated in a provocation in front of the Cuban embassy in Panama. Days later, North American journalist Tracey Eaton revealed the salaries received by some of those individuals to carry out the provocations in a post on his blog Along the malecón.  

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And what about Washington’s terrorists in Miami?

Andres Gomez

May 19, 2015

By Andrés Gómez*/Foto Virgilio Ponce -Cubanos en UK-Martianos-Hermes-Cubainformación.- Everything seems to indicate that once Cuba is removed from the U.S. List of States Sponsors of Terrorism at the end of May — given the prohibitions imposed on the countries on that List— a major stumbling block to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana will be overcome.

Another major obstacle that impedes the reestablishment of those relations is the reluctance of the U.S. government — once relations are reestablished — for its diplomats in Cuba to adhere to the functions permitted to any diplomat accredited in a given country, according to the regulations established in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, the international treaty regulating such functions to which both countries are signatories.

With the renewal of diplomatic relations will then begin a long, controversial and harsh negotiating process between both governments, towards achieving the long-awaited normalization of relations between both nations, between both peoples.

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‘Dissidents’ left in the cold by Cuba thaw

Berta Soler

The vast majority of Cubans inside and outside the country responded with jubilation to the simultaneous announcements by Presidents Obama and Raul Castro on 17 December 2014 about a thaw in US-Cuba relations. Obama’s speech acknowledged that US policy towards Cuba has failed. On 20th January the countries began a round of official talks aimed at re-establishing diplomatic relations, which create the possibility of an end of the US blockade of Cuba which has been imposed for over half a century. Already President Obama has authorised the lifting of some travel, trade and financial restrictions, but the blockade remains codified in law. Since its onset, the blockade was designed to strangle Cuba, causing its entire population to suffer hunger and desperation. Although it failed to lead to the overthrow of the government, the effects have indeed been devastating in all aspects of social, material and cultural life.  

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Speech by Miriam Palacios to Cuban Five vigil (+Video, Photos)

London, 3 /12/2014

Vigil for the Cuban Five in front of US Embassy

Miriam Palacios, Cubans in UK

Dear friends:

We thank your commitment in this struggle for justice and for the freedom of our Heroes, especially to Cuban Solidarity Campaign, which organizes vital activities supporting our country. Every year Cubans living in Europe gather in different cities to condemn the injustice of having our heroes in United States prisons, but also to prize and admire the integrity of the Miami Five and what they represent.

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Nación y Emigración