Cuba was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to receive authorization to begin clinical trials of a vaccine candidate against COVID-19, Soberana 01, in August of last year.
By November, the World Health Organization (WHO) included a second national candidate (Sovereign 02) on the official site of projects in phases of clinical trials against the disease. Both are developed by the Finlay Institute for Vaccines. In the same month, the start of clinical trials of the vaccine candidates Mambisa and Abdala, by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), was authorized.
The country’s fundamental purpose is to achieve technological sovereignty, so that having national vaccines against SARS-COV-2 is a way of guaranteeing it, something doubly valid at such a special, critical moment in the history of humanity.
It is a source of pride to create, not just one, but four potential vaccines, ready in the near term to combat a deadly virus, in a country blocked, for almost 60 consecutive years, by the United States government, whose last administration sickeningly punished our country. town, with some 240 measures that still remain.
The development of the four vaccine candidates – in clinical trials – is progressing, insofar as it should be the domestic solution to a pandemic. It is a merit only possible thanks to the effort always put by the Revolution in the development of science and, as a consequence, by virtue of the experience acquired by scientists in the biotechnology branch.
The national biopharmaceutical industry is preceded by a history of successes that has allowed, for example, that the country has 100% coverage in the vaccination program, an indicator that places it at the global forefront and that has allowed the complete eradication of diseases and reduce the damage caused by others.
About 30 years ago, the vaccine against meningitis types B and C was administered in Cuba, the first of its kind on a universal scale.
Progress on this front is also due to the hepatitis B vaccine, the first to obtain WHO certification in Latin America. It should be added, among others, Heberpenta against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and other affections; in addition to the one registered against Haemophilus Influenzae type b (in the same way, the first in Latin America and the second of its kind in the world).
Cubans, therefore, believe in our scientists, and we trust in the effectiveness of Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Mambisa and Abdala. The forecasts for the current year, in the face of a massive immunization, are promising.
The four vaccines of sovereignty will protect this dignified and giant people, whose legitimate daughters are. While they arrive, let’s stay immunized with hygiene and individual responsibility.
Source: Granma
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