The present book introduces an original (new) perspective on Cuba. This
book revisits Cuba's choice, after the 1959 revolution, to develop an
advanced healthcare and scientific system. It also introduces new
aspects of the problem development/underdevelopment. From the start,
every effort of the Cuban leadership and scientific community was driven
by the primary purpose of meeting the country's basic economic and
social needs. Immediate key measures taken after the revolution included
free education up to higher levels and free health services. In only a
couple of decades Third World diseases were defeated and a First World
health profile was achieved. In the sciences, support and collaboration
was sought and welcomed from both Soviet and western countries.
Moreover, due to the backward position of the Soviet Union in genetics
and molecular biology, in the early 1970s Cuban scientists were trained
in these fields mainly by Italian biologists. In the following decade,
initially relying on contacts with American and Finnish specialists,
Cuban biologists and physicians built a large industrial biotechnology
complex to produce and commercialize Cuban-made, and often invented,
medicines and vaccines.
In the early 1990s the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and the
socialist market created an unprecedented challenge. Yet Cuba's
scientific system substantially resiled, despite unavoidable setbacks.
This crisis was faced by confirming and reinforcing government support
for biotechnology, with the result that today Cuba excels at a global
level in the typical capital-intensive field of biotechnology.
While this book is especially devoted to historians of science and
technology and to biotechnologists, it is of interest to the general
public.
