Cubans developing therapy for diabetic ulcers

Mary Murray Producer • E-mail

HAVANA — Like many diabetics, Miguel Sobrino suffers from nerve damage that, in turn, inhibits his blood circulation.

A few winters ago, after a small cut on his left foot turned into an ulcer that refused to heal, a condition resulted called “diabetic foot.”  With not enough blood reaching his lower extremities, his wound was deprived of the oxygen and nutrients needed to heal.

First, his toes turned black, followed by his foot. Then his ankle began to blacken as gangrene began spreading up his leg. At that point, his doctors scheduled immediate surgery.

“One doctor wanted to amputate to the ankle,” he remembers. “Another to the knee.

"I was in a panic.”

Just days away from surgery, Sobrino sought out one last opinion. “I went to see the physician at my job. And that lucky hunch saved my leg.”

Cutting-edge medical research
It’s even luckier for Sobrino that he doesn’t work just anywhere. The 67-year old gardener tends the sprawling grounds at Havana’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), a 754,000 square-foot complex that forms the cutting edge of Cuba’s biotech industry, a priority for the Castro government since 1981.

Marking its 25^th anniversary this year, the CIGB has produced an array of health care products for sale on the global pharmaceutical market including a “clot buster” for heart attack victims and a small yellow pill derived from sugarcane that lowers dangerous cholesterol and lipoproteins. In addition, the center claims to have produced the world’s only meningitis B vaccine.

Some U.S. officials have questioned the industry’s real purpose, alleging that it’s a façade for military research to manufacture biological weapons such as like anthrax and bubonic plague. Cuban scientists dismiss the charges, stating that their work is rooted in finding cures for many diseases.

CIGB’s 1,200 researchers are responsible for the lion’s share of Cuban medical discoveries. Mostly due to their efforts, the country has patents pending on some 150 new medicines and technologies that treat a range of diseases — from heart disease and different cancers to AIDS — and is marketing its products worldwide.

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