Dr. María Isela Lantero, Director of the National AIDS Program in Cuba, Dies

February 16, 2021

On Sunday, February 14, 2021, Dr. María Isela Lantero Abreu passed away, a victim of cancer.

Born in 1953 in Havana, she worked for 44 years in various tasks in Public Health, especially for the past 30 years in the National Program for Prevention and Control of STIs, HIV and hepatitis. She began working at the Santiago de las Vegas Sanatorium as an epidemiologist.

She later moved to the National Department of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), holding since 2010 the high responsibility of directing the Department of STIs-HIV and hepatitis, work to which she dedicated all her experience and commitment.

Due to the high complexity of these health programs, she maintained diverse relationships with all areas of Minsap, other ministries, mass organizations, organisms and Cuban civil society, integrating herself into all projects of the United Nations Agencies in Cuba. Linked to these, she participated as a representative of our country in several high-level United Nations meetings dedicated to the evaluation and promotion of the fight against HIV/AIDS in the world.

In numerous international and regional congresses she contributed Cuban experience and incorporated the best of national experience in the battle against AIDS.

In 2015 she had the honor, together with the Minister of Public Health, of receiving in Washington the certification of Cuba's declaration as the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis, this distinction being reaffirmed in 2019.

In addition to her administrative and scientific duties, she dedicated part of her knowledge to research and postgraduate teaching and received numerous recognitions during her lifetime for the work carried out.

She built a lovely family together with her husband and continued working until the last moment in the functions inherent to her position, as a demonstration of her high dedication, commitment, devotion, and love for her profession.

Her husband, her children, grandchildren, sister, family members, coworkers and all civil society linked to the HIV response in Cuba mourn this loss.