Cuba Quantifies Child Health Toll of US Oil Blockade

New figures show the human cost of the US energy blockade: infant mortality has roughly doubled to 9.9 per 1,000 births, childhood cancer survival has fallen from 85% to 65% since restrictions began in January, and about 100,000 children under 7 no longer receive the state's daily milk ration. UNICEF said seven critical shipments of newborn medical supplies worth $630,000 were stalled in transit, and Cuba's 16-vaccine infant immunization program is now "at risk." UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said days earlier that "children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines," calling the sanctions package incompatible with international human rights law.