Popular, Prolific, Populist

November and December saw the passing away of three relentless champions of popular cause.

- Abhay Shukla, R A Mashelkar, Subhojit Goswami

FIDEL ALEJANDRO CASTRO RUZ (1926-2016)

A CHAMPION OF PUBLIC HEALTH

THE DEMISE of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a huge loss to the global public health. As the leader of the island nation of Cuba for nearly half-a-century, Fidel not only led exemplary initiatives to ensure healthcare for all within the country, but also ensured that Cuban doctors were the first to reach out to people in developing countries during natural disasters. Under Fidel, Cuban medical scientists also developed cutting-edge measures to combat diseases, ranging from meningitis to cancers.

Across the political spectrum, few would dispute the outstanding successes the Cuban healthcare system has achieved since Fidel and his comrades led the country’s revolution in 1959. As the country’s president, Fidel consistently promoted advances in primary healthcare, public health, medical education and research. These include establishing a widespread network of public hospitals and community-based clinics, emphasising on preventive and promotive health measures, and building a unique system for training of doctors and healthcare professionals.

Fidel supported the creation of the family doctor-and-nurse programme since the 1980s, ensuring that every neighbourhood of Cuba had access to primary healthcare. Small wonder, the country’s infant mortality rate stands at 4.2 per 1,000—the lowest in Latin America and even lower than the rate in the US—even though its per capita healthcare spending is just a fraction of that of the US.