NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Cuban Delegation Visits NIH

Several people stand in front of a railing
Outside Bldg. 1 are (from l) Dr. Nestor Marimon Torres, director of international relations, Ministry of Public Health; Dr. Pastor Castell-Florit Serrate, director, National School of Public Health; FIC director Dr. Roger Glass; Dr. José Angel Portal Miranda, vice minister of public health; Dr. Jorge Pérez Ávila, director, Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine; Dr. Raúl Pérez González, director, National Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology; Dr. Cristina Rabadán-Diehl, director, Office of the Americas, HHS Office of Global Affairs; Dr. Jorge Marinello Guerrero, president, Cuban Oncology Society; and Kevin Bialy of FIC’s Division of International Relations, western hemisphere region.

Photo:  Karin Zeitvogel

Glass shakes someone's hand
Fogarty’s Glass (r) greets Cuba’s vice minister of public health at FIC’s Stone House.

Photo:  Karin Zeitvogel

Collins welcomes Miranda
NIH director Dr. Francis Collins (l) welcomes Dr. José Angel Portal Miranda, Cuba’s vice minister of public health.

Photo:  Karin Zeitvogel

A group photo
The group from Cuba took a tour of the Vaccine Research Center during their visit to NIH. Shown in front of the VRC are (from l) González; VRC deputy director Dr. Barney Graham, chief of NIAID’s Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory and translational science core; Portal Miranda; NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci; Cuba’s top AIDS expert Ávila; Rabadán-Diehl; and Torres, who is also chief editor of the Cuban Journal of International Public Health.

Following President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba this spring, the HHS Office of Global Affairs hosted Cuba’s vice minister of public health and a delegation of Cuban doctors, researchers and public health officials to strengthen scientific and public health collaboration between the two countries. Their visit to the U.S. included a trip to NIH.

NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci, FIC director Dr. Roger Glass and other NIH’ers met with representatives from Cuba including Dr. José Angel Portal Miranda, vice minister of public health, and Dr. Jorge Perez Ávila, director of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine. The vice minister is the highest-level Cuban official ever to visit the NIH campus in Bethesda. 

The delegation met for 2 days with HHS representatives in Washington D.C., spent 1 day with NIH officials on campus, where they toured the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center, and gathered for 2 days with staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

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