On Mon, 26 Jan 1998, s_sanderson wrote:
> At one time I found it very interesting that Cuba had probably the lowest level
> of infant mortality in Latin America. Boy, their socialist regime must be
> doing something right, I concluded. And then I discovered, quite by accident,
> that they had had the same low level of infant mortality before the Castro
> regime!
>
In 1959, the infant mortality rate in Cuba was 32.3 per 1000 babies born.
By 1963, it had risen to 39.6, largely a consequence of the fact that more
than half of Cuban physicians left the island during the 1960s, mostly in
the early 1960s. By 1984, the infant mortality rate had been reduced to
16. Prior to the revolution, there was approximately one doctor per 1000
persons. By 1984, the ratio was one to 490. In 1959, there were 58
hospitals in Cuba; by 1976, there were 257. In 1962, there were 161
polyclinics; by 1983, there were 387. These facts are taken from Louis A.
Perez, Jr., {Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution} (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995), pp. 361-65. Perez is professor of history at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Charles McKelvey
Department of Sociology
Presbyterian College
Clinton, South Carolina 29325