5th International Workshop on Child Health, Camaguey, Cuba March 2010
5th International Workshop on Child Health
Camaguey, Cuba, 2-4 March 2010
Following the tremendous success of last year's workshop (see below), the IISC and Prof. Imti Choonara of Nottingham University have teamed up once again to organise another workshop in 2010.
Organised by Camaguey Children’s Hospital; Department of Provincial Health, Camaguey; International Institute for the Study of Cuba, London and University of Nottingham
The workshop will be held in Camaguey, which has strong links with Derby and the University of Nottingham. This collaboration has resulted in two recent scientific publications1,2.
It is hoped that the workshop will result in more scientific publications involving Cuban health professionals. Other aims are:
- For health professionals from overseas to understand the provision of healthcare for children in Camaguey and Cuba.
- To promote a scientific exchange of ideas between health professionals in Camaguey, Havana and overseas.
- For this scientific exchange to result in collaborative research.
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Themes
Child Health in the Community
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Children in Hospital |
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Paediatric Therapeutics |
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Research Session |
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Camaguey and Latin America |
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Itinerary for visit to Cuba 2010 (UK delegates)
Sunday 28 February
- Departure from London Gatwick with Virgin at 1145
- Arrive in Havana at 1640
- Transfer to Hotel Telegrafo, Havana
- Evening and overnight stay in Havana
Monday 1 March
- Sightseeing tour of Old Havana (3 hours)
- Lunch at "La Mina" restaurant in Old Havana
- Travel to Camaguey by minibus/coach (8 hours)
- Accommodation in Hotel Puerto Principe, Camaguey
Tuesday 2 - Thursday 4 March
- Workshop
Friday 5 March
- Free day in Camaguey (? visit Santa Lucia beach)
Saturday 6 March
- Leave Camaguey by minibus and travel to Havana (8 hours)
- Evening in Havana
- Accommodation in Hotel Telegrafo, Havana
Sunday 7 March
- Free day in Havana
- Leave for airport at 1600
- Flight departs at 2010
Monday 8 March
Arrive in Gatwick at 0845
Registration
In order to attend the workshop, registration is compulsory. The cost is £300.00 (payment to be made to the University of Nottingham via Imti Choonara). This covers the cost of the workshop, transport and food in Camaguey and the minibus return to Havana on Saturday 6 March.
Flights and accommodation
We recommend booking the flight and accommodation early. We are organising the workshop in conjunction with Old Havana Ltd and the Sales Manager in London, Antonio Guevara, can book the flight with Virgin (current rate £562).
Contact details for Old Havana Ltd are Antonio Guevara; Email:
aguevara@scuktravel.com;
King William House (3rd Floor),
2A Eastcheap,
London
EC3M 1AA;
Tel: 0207 621 6524.
Old Havana Ltd can offer the following for a total cost of £375 per person (£298 per person if sharing a double room).
28/FEB/10 Meeting and greeting at your arrival in Cuba
Transfer to a hotel in Old Havana
Hotel Telegrafo with breakfast (1 night)
01/MAR/10 Havana Colonial Tour (3 hours)
Lunch at "La Mina" restaurant in Old Havana
Drop off at VIAZUL Havana coach station
15:00 Coach Transfer to Camaguey
Accommodation at Hotel Puerto Principe with breakfast (5 nights)
06/MAR/10 Accommodation at Hotel Telegrafo with breakfast (1 night)
07/MAR/10 Transfer to Havana Airport
Academic visa
Individuals will need an academic visa from the Cuban Embassy which unfortunately is quite complicated.
Individuals need to send a scanned electronic copy of their passport to Imti Choonara by January 15th 2010.
This will then be sent on to Dr Nacyra Bonet Lopez in Camaguey who will forward the information to the immigration authorities in Cuba. The latter will then authorise the academic visa. Individuals will, however, still need to complete the appropriate forms and pay the fee for the academic visa (approximately £50) from the Cuban Embassy (167 High Holborn, London WC1V 6PA; www.cubaldn.com/) themselves.
Summary of costs
£
Registration 300
Flights(approx) 562
Accommodation 375
Academic visa 50
£1287
Further info:
Tel +44 (0) 1332 724693;
Email: imti.choonara@nottingham.ac.uk
1. Rodriguez FV, Lopez NB, Choonara I. Child health in Cuba. Arch Dis Child 2008; 93: 991-993
2. Lopez NB, Choonara I. Can we reduce the number of low birth-weight babies? The Cuban experience. Neonatology 2009; 95: 193-197
Most succesful workshop ever
4th International Workshop on Child Health
Camaguey, Cuba, March 2009
The fourth, and most successful, International Workshop on Child Health in Cuba was held in Camaguey on 3-5 March 2009. The multidisciplinary meeting involved doctors, nurses, clinical pharmacists and social workers.
Nine health professionals from the UK attended and they learnt about health care of children in Cuba. The multidisciplinary group from the UK involved an academic social worker, a trainee in child and adolescent psychiatry, a school nurse, a student in public health, a medical student and several consultant paediatricians.
The workshop was organised by the Director of Camaguey Children’s Hospital (Dr Deybis Sánchez Miranda), the Department of Provincial Health, Camaguey Province, (Dr Nacyra Bonet Lopez), the Department of Child Health, University of Nottingham and the International Institute for the Study of Cuba at London Metropolitan University.
The meeting was held in the San Juan de Dios museum which used to be a children’s hospital. The delegates were welcomed by a local orchestra who played both Cuban music and delighted the British delegates with an excellent version of ‘Yesterday’ by Lennon and McCartney. The main focus of the first day was child health in the community and two Cuban doctors explained the role of the family practitioner and the polyclinic. The family doctor, working with a nurse, provides medical care for between 120 and 160 families. The health professionals are aware of each member of the family and understand their medical and social problems. The polyclinics provide secondary care but work alongside the family doctor. The group visited the Julio Antonio Mella polyclinic in Camaguey which, like all polyclinics in Cuba, offers 24 hour emergency facilities.
There was also extensive discussion on the first day in relation to the management of children with disabilities in Cuba and the UK. The multidisciplinary approach to these children in two different countries was remarkably similar and reassuring.
Alongside the British and Cuban health professionals, were health professionals from Argentina, Canada and the United States. Dr Marcela Defagó described child health in Argentina and focused on inequalities in health in Argentina. She pointed out that over 40% of children in Argentina live in poverty and that there are wide variations in child mortality rates in different parts of Argentina. There was a three fold variation in infant mortality rates within different parts of Argentina. The problems of malnutrition, drug abuse and street children in Argentina provided a stark contrast to achievements in child health in Cuba. Other contributions on the second day focused on Cuba’s contribution to child health in Latin America where many Cuban health professionals work and Cuba’s role in training doctors from countries throughout Latin America.
Other themes within the workshop included a focus on the management of critically ill children, giardiasis, management of pain and the role of the nurse. Nurse Aime Garrote Camejo described how health professionals in Camaguey dealt with the effect of three hurricanes over a short period in time. No lives were lost in Camaguey Province and casualties were kept to a minimum. She explained how they have an annual training day in preparation for hurricanes so that everything runs smoothly when the hurricanes strike.
One of the aims of the workshop is to encourage Cuban health professionals to perform research and publish their findings. A poster session was held involving over a dozen health professionals on issues ranging from the rational use of antibiotics to the detection of hypertension in primary care.
Zeina Bárzaga Arencibia, a clinical pharmacist, described the role of the Therapeutics Committee in Camaguey Children’s Hospital and Dr Yoycet Ruiz de Villa Martínez described how they tried to prevent excessive use of antibiotics in the community. It was interesting to hear that they were concerned about their low breast feeding rates (only one in four infants were exclusively breast fed at the age of six months). It was pointed out to them that we in the UK would be delighted to achieve such high breast feeding rates.
The workshop provoked extensive discussion such that the meeting constantly overran. In order to accommodate a visit to the Children’s Hospital, this was arranged early in the morning prior to the lectures. Despite the long working days the delegates still managed to visit the beautiful city of Camaguey alongside visits to several excellent restaurants. The group also visited the house of Dr Carlos Finlay who was the first to develop the theory that mosquitoes were carriers of the organism responsible for yellow fever. He subsequently identified the mosquito responsible for transmitting this disease and recommended controlling the mosquito population to prevent the spread of yellow fever. The group finished off with a free day in Havana and a good understanding of how preventing illnesses is better than treating them once they are established.
