Cuba's Fidel Castro: didn't expect to live to 87

[Mika]

13. For some, true.

It took some time for transmission modalities to become known, but sexual transmission was a primary suspect early on. The intransigent sexual transmitters were put in sanatoriums (not jails, as they do in the US) for treatment and education on the lethality of their intransigent sexual conduct - gay and straight. The Cuban ministry of health was very quick to realize that HIV was not a "gay disease" (unlike the US's Reagan era dept of health, which went after gays, Haitians, etc)). It could have become an epidemic and would have overwhelmed their national health care system if rapid development of understanding wasn't undertaken.
The sanatoriums were created by the Ministry of Health specifically for the treatment of HIV positive, and very ill patients - both gay and straight.
Despite the anti Cuba rhetoric, Cuba was and still is a leader in care and treatment for HIV positive patients, and Cuba has THE LOWEST transmission rates of HIV in the Western hemisphere because of their advanced sexual health education programs.

I should note again that I lived there during some of this scary time, and I am also a doctor.
Cheers.