Cuban Colada

U.S. science delegation goes to Cuba

Dr. Peter Agre, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, is among the members of a nongovernmental U.S. delegation that traveled to Cuba for discussions on science policy, Nov. 10-13.
A press release from the AAAS says the group will meet with leading Cuban scientists and policy officials. The visit is meant to explore research issues and science venues that might lead to scientific cooperation between the two countries. [For Reuters coverage of the tour, click here.]
The delegation plans to visit the Academy of Sciences of Cuba and the University of Havana. It also anticipates meetings with officials of the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment; the Ministry of Higher Education; the Ministry of Public Health; and the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
The group includes, among others:
• Anthony Rock, chief executive officer of the Association of Science-Technology Centers and a former acting Assistant Secretary of State for science, technology, environment and health affairs;
• Vaughan Turekian, AAAS chief international officer and director of the AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy; and
• Lawrence Wilkerson, professor of government at the College of William and Mary and chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell (2002-2005).

Chinese units expand cell-phone service

Chinese technology will help Cuba expand its cell-phone service to cities in Camagüey province, according to the Prensa Latina news agency.
The installation of five "integral cabinets" – self-contained telephone exchanges – will enable the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) to bring almost 4,000 new digital lines to Camagüey, Jimaguayú and Santa Cruz del Sur, cities that were severely damaged by Hurricane Paloma last year.
As described by Prensa Latina, "the cabinets are small exchanges with individual capacity for 240-to-1,000 lines. They are perfect for rural zones or suburban areas with little or no telephone service." With battery backup, "they can guarantee communications in any contingency situation."
The Chinese units were first used in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. An ETECSA official in Camagüey told Prensa Latina that the expansion of cell-phone technology will eventually lead to the elimination of fixed-line service in his province.

[RELATED STORY: U.S. telecommunications companies will find it tough to break into Cuba's largely untapped cell-phone market, Reuters predicts. Click here. Read also this Reuters Fact Box.] 

Fidel's son talks science with EuroCom

Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart met Wednesday in Brussels with the European Commissioner for Science and Cooperation, Janez Potocnik, and the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, to discuss "the potential development of areas of mutual scientific cooperation" between Cuba and the European Union.
The Cuban leader's son, 59, is scientific adviser to the Cuban Council of State.
Political topics were not discussed, EU sources emphasized.
Castro Díaz-Balart was recently in Moscow, where, according to the local media, he spent some time promoting scientific cooperation between Cuba and Russia. See our blog items "Russia, Cuba to resume nuclear research" (May 27) and "Russia praises Cuba for atomic research" (May 30).
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Russia praises Cuba for atomic research

An update on Russian-Cuban cooperation on nuclear power generation (see our May 27 blog item on the subject).
The Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia's leading atomic research center, will "increase exchanges of mutual interest with the Cuban research center," Cuba's Radio Agramonte reported. Its director, Mikhail Kobalchuk, on Saturday welcomed Cuba's top nuclear specialist, Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, and Cuban Ambassador Juan Valdés, "to whom he praised the island's advances in the assimilation and development of leading technology," Radio Agramonte said.
According to an announcement, Castro toured the Institute's nanotechnology lab because "he has been entrusted by his government to carry out a national program for the development of this very new branch of science."
Nanotechnology is defined as the science of building functional systems at the molecular scale.
Kobalchuk congratulated Castro for the honorary doctorate he received this week at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and for the Igor Kurchatov Award he received from Russia's nuclear agency, Rosatom. Named after Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (1903-1960), the father of Soviet nuclear physics and chief of the Soviet atomic weapons program, the award is the highest honor conferred by Rosatom.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Russia, Cuba to resume nuclear research

Russia and Cuba have agreed to renew their cooperation in nuclear research, interrupted in 1992 when construction of a nuclear power plant in Cienfuegos province was halted, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday. No further details were given.
Sergei Kirienko, president of the state-owned Rosatom, announced the plan during a ceremony Wednesday at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute at which Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, scientific advisor to Cuba's Council of State, was presented with an award for his work in nuclear research. Castro Díaz-Balart, 59, is the Cuban leader's oldest son. He studied in the Soviet Union and graduated in theoretical physics. In the 1980s, he headed the Cuban agency in charge of nuclear physics studies.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

3 flu patients cleared; 4th case reported

The three Mexican medical students diagnosed with swine flu "were discharged and are carrying out their daily tasks," the Cuban Ministry of Health announced Tuesday. Because of that, the state of isolation imposed on the medical school at Jagüey Grande, Matanzas province, where the three are studying, has been lifted and routine activities have resumed, the ministry said.
(See our May 15 blog item "Swine flu limited to 3 Mexicans.")
However, a fourth case of influenza was reported last week, a 14-month-old Canadian boy brought to Cuba from Toronto by his parents. According to the ministry, he was hospitalized, "evolved satisfactorily and [on Tuesday] appeared asymptomatic." His parents were treated with antiviral medication as a precaution, a press release said. [UPDATE: The boy was discharged on May 25, Cuban medical authorities announced.]

Castro defends halt in travel to Mexico

In his fourth article in one week about the swine flu epidemic, Fidel Castro on Saturday defended Cuba's suspension of air travel between the island and Mexico as well justified.
Writing in the official Cubadebate website, Castro said Cuba was right in suspending the flights from Mexico -- the apparent source of the disease -- because "our country has accumulated long experience in the protection of the people in case of disasters, epidemics and plagues. [...] What determined the measure was not related to tourist travel but to the almost 400 young Mexicans who study medicine" in Cuba. (See our May 15 blog item "Swine flu limited to 3 Mexicans.")
The travel suspension "began to be applied six days after the drastic decisions taken by the Mexican authorities, which suspended classes for 33 million students and applied similar measures," Castro pointed out. "Our measures also implied sacrifices for Cuba. But what mattered to our government was to protect our population."
"The criticism aimed at the government of Cuba -- and the threat of reprisal it contained -- was totally unfair. In addition, we were portrayed as a nation hostile to the people of Mexico," Castro wrote.
The Cuban leader seemed to be still smarting from comments made on May 8 by Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who hinted he might cancel a planned visit to Cuba in retaliation for Cuba's suspension of air travel to his country.
"I was going to travel to Cuba, yes, in a few days or weeks, but because Cuba has impeded flights from Mexico I may not be able to go," Calderón said then. "It may become one of the unforeseen consequences of decisions that do not have sufficient technical basis."
Cuba, Argentina, Peru and China suspended air travel to Mexico, and Calderón said that he would "respect their decisions, so long as they have technical basis and solid background. [...] I demand from those countries respect for the Mexican people and nondiscriminatory treatment," he added.
Calderón called for "a halt to measures that do not help to prevent the propagation of the virus and are very prejudicial to Mexico," a remark that apparently irked Castro enough to inspire three articles on the medical and diplomatic crisis, one on May 11 and two on May 14. To read them, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Cuba: Swine flu limited to 3 Mexicans

At least 19 young Mexicans studying medicine in Cuba were placed in quarantine for fears that they might carry the swine flu virus, the Mexican newspaper Tribuna de los Cabos reported Friday. Four of them had spent several days in Mexico in late April before returning to the island to resume their studies.
In an e-mail to a councilman in San José del Cabo, one of the students, David Huerta, said 14 of the students displayed symptoms of the common cold. Excerpts from his letter follow:
• "Measures were taken here in school, because our arrival in Cuba coincided with the outbreak in Mexico. They placed us under house quarantine, in other words, we're not authorized for any reason to leave the school grounds [...] not only us but also all other workers and doctors. It will be that way until the Cuban government and the MINSAP [Ministry of Public Health] consider that there's no longer any danger of an outbreak in the population."
• A fellow Mexican student returning to Cuba from Michoacán "didn't even make it to the campus. He was stopped at the airport and taken to a specialized center." The Mexican newspaper does not name the school, but the Cuban daily Granma has identified it as the medical school at Jagüey Grande in Matanzas province.
• "Fourteen students are under observation but only for presenting symptoms of the common cold, and so far it has not been proven that it's flu. The quarantine has caused us minimal personal and academic problems, because we haven't been able to begin our practice in the hospital. We hope it ends so we can begin our practice. Other than that, no problems; there's a lot to study. This week we begin pharmacology."
In an article published Friday in Granma, Fidel Castro quoted the magazine Science as estimating that the swine flu epidemic began in Mexico between January and March of this year. For that article, click here.
[UPDATE: On Friday, the Ministry of Health confirmed three cases of swine flu in the Jagüey Grande school. "The evolution of these three cases has been favorable," the ministry said. "All have received antiviral treatment [...] and no adverse reactions have occurred. Eleven of the 15 cases displaying symptoms have been released; only four remain, and they are evolving favorably."]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.