Cuban blindness

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 1990s, as Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis, leading to severe food shortages and malnutrition, around 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss.

One of America's leading eye specialists, Dr Alfredo Sadun, was invited to the communist-ruled island by Fidel Castrol to help figure out what was going on. Mike Lanchin spoke to Dr Sadun in 2021.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: A man undergoes an eye examination in Cuba in1993. Credit: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting. Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon,
0:06.3	and I make podcasts for the BBC. I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book. But when I started
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0:17.8	mixture of sounds could take you into a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to
0:25.2	give it a go myself, which, to cut a long story short, led to a BBC training scheme and a whole
0:29.9	new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories
0:34.1	that make you go wow, like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC Sounds.
0:45.0	Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service. In the early
0:51.0	1990s, as Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis leading to severe food shortages
0:57.7	and malnutrition, some 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss.
1:04.7	One of America's leading eye specialists was invited to the communist ruled island by Fidel Castro to help figure out what was going on.
1:13.9	Mike Lanshin spoke to him in 2021.
1:19.8	It's May 1993 and Dr Alfredo Sadun has just been contacted by an official from the World Health Organization, the WHO, who tells him
1:29.2	about wiring reports of a blindness epidemic raging in Cuba.
1:33.1	I can't remember the exact words, but I will paraphrase it. Something along the lines of,
1:37.7	the World Health Organization has identified that this is, A, likely a viral problem, B, likely to be affecting the optic nerve.
1:47.3	I was sort of the world's expert on diseases of the optic nerve, and so the request was that
1:52.5	I go to Cuba as soon as possible. As many as 50,000 people have been affected, and the disease,
1:57.8	it seems, is spreading at a terrifying rate.
2:06.9	The WHO official wants Dr. Sudun to fly to Cuba straight away that very same night.
2:10.3	But he says no. He's in Miami with his family,
2:13.9	and he tells the WHO that they'll have to wait a day or two.
	...

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