Cuba's health system, an essential element in the country's social development, has benefited from the gradual incorporation of up-to-the-minute technologies and treatments to counter the negative effects of several diseases.

Traditional medicine has developed at the same time as state-of-the-art technologies, in a combination aimed at achieving the sole goal of improving the people's quality of life.

Cuban experts also use natural toxins, including the so-called Escozul, which is obtained from the blue scorpion, whose scientific name is Rhopaluris junceus.

Research carried out so far has shown that Escozul has analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumoral properties, and has had a positive impact on more than 90 percent of patients.

The toxin is extracted under laboratory conditions and using complex techniques. The poison is processed to guarantee its purity and later mixed in appropriate doses.

Escozul has proved to be effective to treat several diseases, especially cancer in the lungs, colon, the digestive track and the prostrate gland, and has preventive effects in some other cases.

Research is underway to administer the drug to patients suffering from arthritis, diabetes, asthma, hepatitis, pelvic inflammation, hepatic cirrhosis and breast displasias.

Cuba's medical achievements place the island among the top countries in organ transplants, including more than 100 heart transplants.

Very complex surgeries are carried out by highly-trained experts who stand out for their high sense of ethics and humanity and who use state-of-the-art technologies.

Excellent programs and unique techniques attract visitors who stay at medical facilities where they receive treatment against ophthalmologic ailments, or a cure for skin diseases such as vitiligo.

Drug addicts and alcoholics, many of whom have been declared a lost case in their countries of origin, find a cure to their problems in Cuba, in a natural, pleasant and tranquil environment that greatly contributes to therapy.

Moreover, patients receive an excellent personalized treatment by Cuban professionals at the Island's medical institutions, where they can find a cure for several diseases.

In Cuba's health system, specialized institutions treat patients who suffer from Parkinson's disease, in addition to those suffering from ailments that affect the quality of movement or from degenerative diseases of the central nervous system.

In that regard, Cuba's neurologists have a vast experience and have successfully carried out surgical procedures to correct movement problems.