“Cuba currently has 1,601 professionals in Hygiene and Epidemiology, a specialty we have heard a great deal about over the last few weeks, in the context of COVID-19, but whose field of action is quite broad, since it not only addresses infectious diseases, but also chronic non-communicable diseases and health problems such as alcoholism, smoking and drug addiction,” stated
Dr. Francisco Durán García, national director of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health, during one of his recent daily press conferences, providing updated information on the status of the SARS-COV-2 epidemic in the country and around the world.
This is a specialty to which the ministry attaches great importance, he added, especially in medical schools, where progress in training new epidemiologists in all provinces is regularly monitored.
“In Havana, for example, 276 doctors who have already graduated in General Comprehensive Medicine are now receiving exhaustive training in hygiene and epidemiology, in addition to 42 residents.
He stressed the importance of developing epidemiological thinking among health care personnel, since the technical elements are not exclusive to one or another specialty.
“This knowledge is useful for all public health professionals. When a clinician, a pediatrician or an obstetrician-gynecologist sees a patient with a certain symptomatology, he or she must think about the social factors that may affect the health problem, which may or may not be infectious,” he concluded.
Source: Granma International.
