Carlos Abelardo Ramírez Márquez

Notable Cuban public health physician.

He was born in the city of Pinar del Río, province of the same name, son of Abelardo Ramírez Márquez, a mechanic and close friend of professor José Isidro Hernández López, a famous instructor of Descriptive Anatomy, who would guide his son at the beginning of his medical career.

He completed primary education in public schools in his native city. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sciences from the Institute of Secondary Education in Pinar del Río (1956). The suspension of teaching activities at the University of Havana on December 3, 1956, due to the beginning of the revolutionary war (1956-1958) prevented him from beginning his university studies until the 1959-1960 academic year.

During that time he developed revolutionary activities against the dictatorship of General Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar (1952-1958), which led him to become active in the Revolutionary Movement "26 de Julio" and intensified when the Guerrilla Front of Pinar del Río was established.

With the revolutionary triumph on January 1, 1959, he had the opportunity to enroll in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Havana. He completed his degree with great achievement. From his second year he worked as a student at the Emergency Hospital "Gral. Fernando Freyre de Andrade" (1961-1964). He worked at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activities (1964-1965) where he collaborated on the research "Factors involved in the psychotherapeutic relationship."

He was a Student Assistant in the Department of Psychiatry, subject of Medical Psychology. He completed a vertical internship in Psychiatry at the University Hospital "Cmdte. Manuel Fajardo" with an outstanding grade. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree on February 10, 1966.

He belonged to the Association of Medical Students, to Military Health, to the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI), and later as a Communist Party member served on its Provincial Committees in Havana and Ciudad de La Habana. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the School of Political Studies "Ñico López" and completed a Master's degree in Public Health at the School of Public Health of Mexico.

He was a Specialist of the second degree, superior level, in Public Health Administration. This solid academic preparation allowed him to have one of the most brilliant careers as a public health specialist in our country.

Provincial Director of Public Health in Pinar del Río, Matanzas, Havana and Ciudad de La Habana. Vice Minister for Medical and Social Care (1993), First Vice Minister in charge of Hygiene and Epidemiology (1996), as well as First Vice Minister and Vice Minister for the Pharmaceutical Industry and Medical Articles.

He was a member of numerous national and foreign scientific societies, Vice President of the Executive Committee of the Pan American Health Organization and President of the Latin American Federation of Thermalism.

This intense work as a public health specialist prevented him from developing an extensive written body of work as we all expected from him, but it is worth highlighting his collaborative study "New scenarios, trends and approaches in guaranteeing the quality of medical care in Cuba" (1993).

He died in Havana on December 27, 2002.

Source: Notebooks of the History of Public Health
https://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/his/his_112/his27112.htm