Havana, Cuba
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Contrary to what you may have heard recently and what US President Donald Trump clearly believes, there is autism in Cuba.
For many years, the island’s national health system has run clinics to treat Cubans with autism and has run campaigns to raise awareness of neurological developmental disorders. Cuba offers specialized autism treatments, such as swimming with dolphins for foreigners seeking treatment that can be paid in the hard currency that is heavily needed.
But while information on how Cuban health care systems deal with autism is available to anyone who is well-versed enough to Google “Cuban” and “autism,” Trump made the strange and false claims Monday that island poverty had spared Cubans this condition.
“I mean, there are rumors. I don’t know if that’s the case. Cuba doesn’t have Tylenol because they don’t have the money for Tylenol, and they don’t have practically no autism.
Cuban officials have yet to respond to Trump’s false claims, and his comments have not been reported so far in the island’s state-run report.
But for many years, Cuban doctors have made public detailed efforts to treat children on the island suffering from autism.
“Every autistic person is unique and their happiness depends on listening, understanding and walking with them, knowing that inclusion is not measured in words but embracing silence and celebrating the various existing ways,” Dr. Osmara Delgado Sanchez told the state website CubadeBate on April 2.
Cuba reports much lower cases of autism than many developed countries, but 0.36 cases per 10,000 people – island health professionals acknowledge that it is the result of a lack of resources needed to diagnose the condition more widely.
According to the World Health Organization, in 2021, about one in every 127 people suffered from autism. However, the WHO warned that “the prevalence of autism in many low- and middle-income countries is unknown.”
Despite increasingly scarce funding, Cuba’s plagued health department has made autism a priority, officials said.
In a similar article in Cubadebate, Delgado said there are 300 Cuban health professionals specializing in autism who work in seven centers on the island dedicated to treating patients with autism.
Cuba has been developing certain autism treatments since 2018, she said.
“We don’t talk about treatment (Cuban patients with autism),” Delgado told the site. “But it maximizes its capabilities… so no one is left.”
