WASHINGTON - Tighter US trade embargo restrictions on Cuba since 1992 have had "devastating" effects on the health of Cubans, according to a study by a leading US health group.
The tighter embargo has resulted in "unnecessary suffering and deaths," said Dr Peter Bourne, chairman of the American Association for World Health, the US committee for the Worlds Health Organisation.
It has "had a devastating impact on the health of ordinary Cubans, particularly women, children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases," the report said.
The average Cuban has access to almost a third less of the 1,297 types of medicine available in 1991, according to the study. Cubans are also deprived of any drug internationally patented by a US manufacturer since 1980 because of patent restriction laws. Spare parts for X-ray machines are in short supply, and Washington officially discourages US manufacturers from exporting them to Cuba.