The medical tourism industry is now fast becoming a global multi-billion dollar industry. More and more countries are looking at medical tourism as an opportunity to promote both their medical services and their tourism industry in just one package deal.
What is medical tourism? Medical tourism is simply a service rendered by private hospitals in other countries consisting of affordable and quality healthcare facilities. It’s a unique combination of health and tourism services. This concept of medical tourism is not new.
The first recorded case of medical tourism actually dates back thousands of years ago when Greek pilgrims traveled from all over the Mediterranean to a place called Epidauria in the Saronic Gulf, the sanctuary of the healing god Asklepios. Later, spas and sanitariums came about. In our country, we have people from all walks of life trooping to our famous hot springs in Calamba hoping for cures and relief of body ailments like arthritis.
Today, the concept of medical tourism has metamorphosed from the simple spas and hot springs to the more wide-ranging sophisticated and hi-tech medical services reaching global proportions. Today, medical tourism is a flourishing business. More and more countries are now getting interested in it. In so doing, countries are actually promoting not only their medical competence but also their tourism industry.
One such country is Cuba. Cuba’s tropical climate coupled with the competence of Cuban doctors, the low prices and the fine beaches spell a thriving medical tourism industry.
Not many know that Cuba, a developing state, has made amazing breakthrough in the field of medical tourism unrivalled elsewhere in the developing world. Based on Cuban government statistics, Cuba has currently more than seventy-one (71,000) thousand doctors, with twenty- (20,000) thousand health workers in Venezuela and 5,000, more spread over the world in over sixty (60) other countries. Also, since 1960, Cuba has been sending doctors to underdeveloped countries and have educated foreign doctors.
Cuba as a country has captured the world’s imagination. Much can be credited to Christopher Columbus who sighted Cuba during his first voyage of discovery and claimed it for Spain on October 12, 1492. He described Cuba, the Caribbean’s biggest island as: “I have never seen a more beautiful country, with palm leaves so big they can roof a house, with thousands of shells on the beach, with such limpid water, and always the same dizzying symphony of bird songs.” Being a colony of Spain for almost four hundred (400) years, Spanish is the official language of Cuba.
Cuba’s basic health indicators are comparable to those countries with highly developed welfare systems in Western Europe. The Cuban medical sector ranks sixth in terms of export earnings. In the late 1980’s, Cuba accomplished its first breakthrough in medical search by the discovery and patenting of meningitis-B vaccine. This vaccine which has been exported to more than thirty (30) countries was successfully used in coping with epidemics in South American countries including Brazil and Argentina.
Cuba’s marketing efforts to promote its medical tourism industry have been focused to attract foreign patients from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Russia. Cuba concentrates the promotion and marketing of its medical tourism industry on the treatment of certain skin diseases which are not curable in other countries, and on the development of new procedures and drugs. Cuba boosts of having the most effective medical treatment for pigmentosis retinosis, often known as night blindness.
Skin disorders like vitiligo, psoriasis, and also alopecia (hair loss) are likewise treated in Cuba using a pioneering medical procedure.
While special mention is made of Cuba’s medical treatment for pigmentosis retinosis and skin disorders – this does not mean that the medical services that Cuba offers to foreign tourist are limited to the two kinds of health disorders. The Cuban international clinics and hospitals for tourists and foreign visitors offer a wide variety of medical, dental and cosmetic treatments and surgeries. Including hair implants, rehabilitation programs for drug addiction, stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury victims, and physical therapy for paraplegics and quadriplegics. Even patients suffering from diseases such as Parkinson’s, cephalicranial traumatism, alzheimer’s, paralysis and other diseases of the nervous system can avail of both medical and paramedical rehabilitation services in Cuba.
The socialist republic government of Cuba has indeed made great strides in medical tourism. Although Cuba may be inadequate or lacking in many things – its success in the field of healthcare, shows that Cuba is rich in human resources. Cuba’s medical sector is a source of pride of the government as well as its people. Both in the field of domestic health care as well as its medical tourism sector. In Cuba, ninety-eight (98) percent of the population is covered by the state system. The average life expectancy is seventy-five (75) years.
Cuba has a low infant mortality rate. In 2004, the Cuban government reported 5.8 deaths per every 1, 000 live births in 2004, one of the lowest in the world. As per statistics from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Cuba is among the thirty-six (36) countries in the world with the lowest mortality rate. Partly due to the strict compliance of the local authorities with the government’s health programs. Also, in Cuba, all doctors are required to complete a nine-year medical program: five years of basic training, one year of in-hospital internship, followed by a mandatory three-year placement at a rural post.
No doubt about it. Cuba is now a popular medical tourism destination. Has been one favorite destination for more than forty (40) years now.
Source : Manila Bulletin