A Social Conception of Health Security in Cuba

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Introduction: From being an insalubrious country in 1959, the year the Revolution triumphed, Cuba has evolved into a medical powerhouse of recognized international prestige. However, at present, there is no established scientific conception of health security as a social dimension of national security.

Objective: To explain the social conception of health security as a dimension of Cuban national security.

Methods: Employing a dialectical-materialist approach, the methods of documentary analysis and systematization were used to address aspects of international, regional, and national security, with a specific emphasis on health security. Furthermore, a review of scholarly articles was conducted using search strategies across Google Scholar, Medline, SciELO, and PubMed; this process involved consulting 16 bibliographic references pertinent to the research topic.

Development: The study analyzed the primary theoretical premises regarding health security in Cuba, establishing the key dimensions associated with the social conception of national security. These dimensions include medical-health potential, sustainable development, and health invulnerability, as well as the identification of risks, threats, and acts of aggression directed against the health of the Cuban people.

Conclusions: Within the medical sciences, it is imperative to integrate a social approach to health security into the refinement of academic curricula, thereby fulfilling the mandate assigned to the training of human resources in the health sector.