Enzo Dueñas Gómez

He was born in Palmira, which is located in the current province of Cienfuegos.

He began his studies in Medicine in the 1950s, which he had to interrupt due to the closure of the University of La Habana decreed by the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. From then on, he joined the student struggle in the ranks of the Directorio Revolucionario. Later he also did so within the Movimiento 26 de Julio. Upon returning from the armed struggle in the Sierra Maestra, he resumed his Medical studies and graduated shortly after 1959.

He became a specialist in Pediatrics in 1960, with full dedication to Neonatology starting in 1961.

He worked in internationalist missions as a pediatrician and neonatologist in Algeria and Nicaragua.

He received international postgraduate courses in France, Germany, Canada, and the Soviet Union. He was awarded a Doctorate in Medical Sciences and was appointed in 1977 as a full professor, and later in 1997, as a consulting professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology at the Medical University of La Habana.

Since the late 1960s, he has brought the best of Cuba's experience in Pediatrics to the world and at the same time opened Cuba's doors to receive the best of Pediatrics from around the world. He was one of the main architects of the infant mortality reduction program (1970). He participated in the design and direction of the Cuba Perinatal Research 1973, which made it possible to identify the true causes of fetal and neonatal mortality in the country at that time.

He was the head of the national Pediatrics group of MINSAP for 25 years (1972-1997), from where he directed and coordinated the implementation of various programs to reduce infant mortality in various conditions such as perinatal conditions, acute diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infections, as well as for the diagnosis and management of various chronic childhood diseases. He also coordinated the national program for the development of Neonatology in Cuba from the mid-1970s.

He created the postgraduate course in Neonatology for technical nurses and later for university-level nurses. He was part of the group of professors who designed the Neonatology residency program as an independent specialty in the 1980s. He organized the national plan for the development of 40 neonatal intensive care units in Cuba during that same period.

He chaired the organizing committee of the Latin American Pediatrics Congress, held at the Palacio de Convenciones de La Habana in 1984. He assumed the presidency of the Latin American Association of Pediatrics (ALAPE) in 1987 at the ALAPE Congress in Caracas, Venezuela. He was part of the Permanent Committee of the International Association of Pediatrics representing Latin America (1987-1992). He was appointed as an advisory expert in Neonatology of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and worked as a consultant for the development of perinatal care programs in various countries in America, Asia, and Africa.

He has published dozens of papers on neonatal topics in texts and research in national and foreign journals. He has advised dozens of thesis presentations for the completion of residencies in Pediatrics and Neonatology.

Since 2005, he is President of Honor of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics, of which he was president for two five-year terms. He is an Honorary Member of almost all Pediatrics societies in Iberoamerica. He was appointed Visiting and Honorary Professor of various Medical Universities in Latin America.

His fruitful life can be summarized as that of a true professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology who has distinguished himself in care, teaching, and research. A true Master of Neonatology in Iberoamerica, who for the work of his entire life was named Honorary Member of the Iberoamerican Society of Neonatology (SIBEN) at its V Congress held in September 2008 in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. There he was given a standing ovation in the opening plenary session by almost 1,500 delegates who, coming from 26 countries, attended the most important event of that specialty in our continent.