Cuba Says World Crises, Huge Inequalities Are Hurdles In Meeting Mdgs Goals

Cuban Health minister Dr Roberto Morales has warned that in order to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals it is crucial to address the problems that stem from world crises and huge inequalities in today's world.

Dr Morales is chairing the 67th World Health Assembly, underway in Geneva.

He denounced the use of countless resources to launch wars that killed thousands of people, while tens of millions die from extreme poverty and preventable diseases.

"Just to put an example, a fighter plane costs as much as the implementation of 40 medical offices," said the minister.

Morales recalled that Cuba has contributed to improve health indicators in over 120 countries of the world with some 135,000 workers since the Revolution triumphed in 1959.

Cuba will continue to defend at the World Health Organization all cooperation and regional political coordination actions to keep contributing to the improvement of medical attention in our countries, said the Cuban minister.

The World Health Assembly runs till Saturday.

Meanwhile, on health-related development, more than 21,000 Paraguayan citizens improved or recovered their sight after undergoing surgery applied by Cuban specialists at the Cuban Eye-treatment center operating in ASUNCION, Paraguay capital.

Center director Boris Carballo told local media about the free-of-charge eye treatment program underway in that nation, which has been welcomed by the Paraguayan people.

A group of 50,000 Cuban health workers are currently offering their services in different countries of the world, while about 1,000 Paraguayan youths have graduated from Cuban medical schools or are taking medicine courses on the island.