Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Cuba's infant mortality rate drops to record low

CUBA’S infant mortality dropped to a record low rate of 4.1 per 1,000 births in 2017, the health ministry announced on Thursday.

“This is a milestone that reflects the integration of the entire healthcare system in the country, which is about lives saved, quality of life, happiness and satisfaction for our people,” Public Health Minister Roberto Morales said.

He added that the country has eliminated diseases including polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, rubella and mumps among newborns. Two years ago, the World Health Organisation confirmed that Cuba was the first country to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
People sit along the edge of an abandoned swimming pool across from a tanker terminal along the port of Matanzas, Cuba, March 30, 2026
Features / 4 April 2026
4 April 2026

CLAUDIA WEBBE says the US is tightening the noose to destroy Cuban socialism — the need for immediate, international solidarity is urgent

Cubans queue for petrol
Latin America / 2 February 2026
2 February 2026

On January 29, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ to US national security and tightened the blockade against the island nation MANOLO DE LOS SANTOS reports

The American embassy in Havana, Cuba, January 14, 2025
Features / 26 October 2025
26 October 2025

Where normally only the US and its ally Israel vote to strangle Cuba economically, there have been special efforts to slander and isolate the besieged socialist island nation year — so we must redouble our solidarity, writes TARIQ ANDERSON

LEADING THE WAY: China’s President Xi Jinping, centre left in front, and his wife Peng Liyuan, centre right in front, pose for a group photo with national leaders and delegations before an opening ceremony of the Global Women’s Summit 2025 at the China National Convention Centre in Beijing, October 13
Features / 15 October 2025
15 October 2025

As the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women begins in Beijing, it’s clear that China has fulfilled its commitments set 30 years ago and delivered amazing progress in women's education and equality, writes YU BOKUN