The United States prevents the sale of vaccines to the island

THE Dutch Intervet Company has halted the delivery of a quadruple vaccine to Cuba after being notified by the U.S. government of the risk of being fined, given that the product contains an antigen manufactured in the United States.

Along with other dramatic cases of being unable to buy medicines for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, there are other ridiculous ones such as the refusal of the Zurich branch of the XEROX Company to renew a leasing contract for a photocopier in the Cuban embassy in Switzerland.

XEROX in Paraguay also refused to sell a photocopying machine to the Cuban diplomatic mission, as did RICOH. Even more absurd was what occurred on May 10 this year, when Hitachi Printing Solutions Europe declined to sell a simple ink cartridge to the Cuban embassy in the Netherlands, with the argument that it is the subsidiary of a U.S. company.

The blockade, which has cost the island $79.325 billion has had other more painful effects, such as the impossibility of acquiring the I-125 isotope for the treatment of children with ocular cancer. For that reason, the public health system has been forced to send children suffering from that illness to be treated abroad, at an extremely high cost.

Another of the difficulties for cancer related diseases is the impossibility of acquiring bone endo-protheses to replace amputations, an implement that increases in size as a child grows, thus allowing him or her to keep a limb. In Mexico, on acquiring the Mexican Refractarios, the U.S. Harbison Walker Refractones Company refused to offer Cuba any of its products.

Another 10 companies located in Argentina, the Bahamas, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were blocked by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control from using the Internet to publicize and sell U.S. citizens tourist packages to the island.

The U.S. government has also frozen the assets of the Hola Sun Holidays Ltd. of Canada, for promoting vacations in Cuba for U.S. citizens. At the same time, the Swedish company NETGIRO informed its Cuban partner that it was unilaterally closing its contracts and retaining its funds to cover possible claims after being included on the U.S. Treasury Department blacklist.

In February 2004, Canadian citizen James Sabzali was given a 12-month conditional sentence and a fine of $10,000 for selling Cuba resins used to purify water for the population.