When, at the end of July 2021, the anti-COVID-19 mass immunization with nationally produced vaccines created by our scientists began in Cuba, the daily positive cases of SARS-COV-2 amounted to 9,000, with thousands of accumulated deaths and more than 40,000 active patients with the virus, in the midst of a complex epidemiological situation that hit Cuban families.
Today, more than a year after the start of the major campaign, the daily number of positive cases does not exceed three (some days there are zero cases reported), while there have been no deaths for months now, and the effects of the wave caused by the dangerous Omicron variant have been overcome without setbacks.
Cuba, which began mass vaccination a few months after several countries in the world, is currently one of the few nations with more than 90% of its population fully immunized, after more than 9,999,000 people have the complete scheme.
At the close of November 6, 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), some 42,410,778 doses had been administered with the Abdala and Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus vaccines, developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and the Finlay Vaccine Institute, respectively.
After a rigorous process of clinical studies, and the evidence demonstrated by the immunogens in adults, Cuba was the first nation in the world to carry out a vaccination campaign in pediatric ages, starting with the 12 to 18 years old age group, followed by the two to 11 years old, and today 99 % of the children and adolescents between two and 18 years old in the Island are fully immunized against the lethal disease.
In November 2021, the administration of booster doses began by health workers and the BioCubaFarma Business Group, and it was later extended to risk groups, adults from 19 to 49, and finally to pediatric ages.
As of November 6, some 8,638,922 people had received booster doses, while the application of the second booster for adults has been underway since May this year.
Undoubtedly, the Cuban anti-COVID-19 vaccination strategy has been the key to the control of the epidemic in the country and at present, when it is advancing in a practically culminating stage, it can be considered a resounding success, as confirmed to Granma newspapers by Dr. Ileana Morales Suarez, director of Science and Technological Innovation of the MINSAP.
"The Cuban anti-COVID-19 vaccination strategy was conceived with the Cuban context in mind, and taken over based on the strengths of the Health System and BioCubaFarma, and anchored in the organization of the Health System itself," she said.
Cuba was able to have a successful vaccination strategy because, in the past, the conditions were in place and it had a strong health system, a robust biotechnological and pharmaceutical industry, a considerable number of highly trained human resources and an organized community, she said.
She acknowledged that the process carried out for more than a year has been the effort of hundreds of thousands of people, who made it possible to vaccinate the entire Cuban population in an intensive and extensive manner, with the unconditional support of the mass organizations, the youth, the community, the organizations located in the area and other factors.
What has made the immunization strategy successful? Dr. Morales Suárez highlighted its creation, in the first place, which goes beyond the mere fact of vaccinating. "There are countries that have had vaccines, but have not had the capacity to provide them in the necessary quantities and time; there are some that have had human resources, but not the money to buy vaccines; Cuba has had vaccines and a Health system to provide vaccines, and that has been our first success," she said.
She underlined the advantage of our country to be able to create its own vaccines -once the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez gave the assignment to the scientists-, since there was a platform and extensive knowledge in developing immunogens.
As a second element, she highlighted the fact that, although Cuba began vaccination a few months after other nations, it surpassed several countries in the world in a short period of time, it was at the top of the list of the number of doses of vaccines administered daily and has long been at the top of the list of countries with the highest number of doses applied per one hundred inhabitants, with around 360 doses per one hundred inhabitants.
Another element of success, said the MINSAP director, is that a Strategy with a scientific basis was developed, which is now being nominated for awards and is the basis for doctoral theses. "It was a Strategy that had a scientific coordinating group, experts, advisors and a process map with all the scientific instruments that guided the actions and had partial results, evaluations and indicators," she said.
Finally, Dr. Morales Suárez believes the main reason to say that it has been a very successful Strategy is the immunity scale and the epidemiological situation in Cuba today. "When we already had more than 50 % of the population vaccinated, the figures of positive cases and deaths dropped abruptly, and today we have total control of the epidemic," she said.
For these reasons, the Cuban strategy is a successful one that sets a guideline for the country and the world on how to carry out this type of interventions. For Cuba, it has been perhaps the most complex health intervention in 60 years, she added.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2023 WITH THE ANTI-COVID-19 VACCINES?
The Director of Science and Technological Innovation at MINSAP announced that they are currently in a meeting of experts, in which the centers that created the vaccines, the Pedro Kourí Institute and the vaccination program of MINSAP, among others, are working together to determine the inclusion of the anti-COVID-19 vaccines as part of the national vaccination scheme, starting in 2023.
For the moment, the closing of this year will continue to focus on the completion of the booster doses (both the first and the second) and the primary vaccination in the cases that still require it, as we are reaching the limit of the possible population to be vaccinated, she explained.
As for pediatric ages, they will only receive a booster dose, due to the high levels of immunity they have developed against the virus, she informed.
Finally, she pointed out that if there were any epidemiological complication, an emergency booster vaccination would be done again to the whole population, in the shortest possible time, and with the conditions already created for it.
Translated by ESTI
