A Cuban scientist who helped develop a low-cost synthetic vaccine that prevents meningitis and pneumonia in small children has been denied a visa by the US government.
San Jose Mercury News editorial
Vicente Verez-Bencomo was to accept an award recognising his team's technological achievement during a Wednesday ceremony at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.
He had also been invited to address a gathering of the Society for Glycobiology in Boston on Friday.
Mr Verez-Bencomo said the State Department denied him a visa because the visit would be "detrimental to the interests of the United States".
"It's incomprehensible that a civilised nation can confuse someone who has dedicated his life to saving the lives of children with someone who goes against the interests of the United States," Mr Verez-Bencomo said. "I wasn't going there to talk about politics, I was going to talk about science."
An editorial in the San Jose Mercury Newsalso expressed disappointment.
It said: "Verez-Bencomo won't be here to receive the award because he's from Cuba. He's a scientist, not a terrorist, but our State Department nevertheless denies him entry. He brings ideas, not bombs, but we let ideology trump innovation."
Mr Verez-Bencomo led a team that developed a vaccine for Haemophilus influenza type B, also known as Hib, a bacteria that causes meningitis and pneumonia. The diseases kill up to 700,000 children worldwide each year.
Prior to the development of a vaccine more than a decade ago, Hib was the biggest cause of meningitis among infants in the United States. That earlier vaccine has all but stamped out the disease in the western world, but mass immunisations are too expensive for many poor countries.
The synthetic vaccine created by Verez-Bencomo's team can be produced at a relatively low cost because antigens don't have to be grown in a bacterial culture, making it an attractive alternative for poorer nations.
AP