Today Cuba is a country that is suffering drastically. Cuba is in a terrible economic situation. The average Cuban can barely afford the bare minimum to live. They suffer because they do not have enough food and water, which creates large numbers of malnourished people and a greater risk of disease. What makes matters worse is that the Cuban government is unable to obtain the medicines needed to treat these diseases (Kirkpatrick 1996). With less than 50% of drugs on the market, Cubans lack adequate healthcare and medicines. They are also denied access to the technology needed to become a more modern and prosperous country. Some Cubans have not even seen their American families for years and cannot receive money as they wish from their American families. This country is suffering greatly and is hungry for economic improvement (Rampersad 2006). Why is this country so poor and defenseless? In 1962, President Kennedy promulgated the permanent embargo against Cuba. This embargo meant that Cuba could not have any relations with the United States. The country could not access any of the United States' resources nor could the United States make anything from them. They had restrictions on Cuban travel, food, water, medicine, and anything else you could think of from the United States. Given that Cuba was dependent on the United States for nearly 70% of its trade and tourism before the embargo, this made the embargo extremely difficult for Cuba. Cuba lost all access to the basic necessities of being a country prosperous; therefore he became very poor (Ralston 2006). This whole embargo started after the Cuban Revolution. The Cuban Revolution consisted of Fidel Castro's overthrow of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. In 196... middle of paper... a prosperous country. The American World Health Association reported that doctors in Cuba have access to less than 50% of the drugs on the world market. The country's economic embargo can have a direct negative effect on public health. The US embargo on Cuba is dramatically damaging the country. Cuba is limited by US resources. For more than 50 years, the embargo imposed by the United States has limited Cuba's ability to purchase food and medicine. In 1992 the United States enacted the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA), which slightly freed the sale of medicines from the embargo. There are so many limitations to this act that it is difficult to evaluate. The effect on the Cuban healthcare system is increased costs, delays in shipments and limited access to some of the most important medical products because they are subject to US jurisdiction (Kirkpatrick 1996).