Chan, who arrived last Saturday in Havana for a four-day official visit, was welcomed at the Jose Marti International Airport by the island’s Public Health Minister, Jose Ramon Balaguer.

“It’s an enormous pleasure for me to visit Cuba for the first time and to learn from the excellent results of the Cuban public health system,” she said.

“A great deal of the work that you carry out, including the primary health care mechanism in communities and the equal and free access to the health care system, are topics of interest for the WHO,” Chan told Balaguer.

Meanwhile, referring to the Influenza A H1N1 virus, she explained that 195 countries have already reported cases of people infected and, in this regard, she thanked the Cuban government for its excellent work and urged governments to create a package of measures to face this pandemic and to fight the virus.

During her visit, the WHO Director General will tour important health and scientific institutions in the country. Her working program will include a ceremony of acknowledgement for her years of service in that organization, as well as a presentation on the island’s health system and health cooperation.

The centers for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Molecular Immunology, and
Immunoassay; the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute; the Ramon Pando Ferrer Ophthalmology Institute; the Latin American School of Medicine; the Rampa Polyclinic; and a center for the disabled, are among the institutions to be visited.

The WHO top official is accompanied by Mirta Roses, Regional Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).