In the eye of the Cuban epidemic neuropathy storm: Rosaralis Santiesteban MD PhD, Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute. Interview by Christina Mills.

When Cuba was hit by a neuropathy epidemic two decades ago, Dr Rosaralis Santiesteban was one of the Cuban health professionals who played a key role in its management, as reflected in a recent issue of Seminars in Ophthalmology. She was well prepared for her part: trained in medicine at the University of Havana before completing a residency in ophthalmology and eventually a doctorate in medical sciences, she has received multiple honors for her research, publishing and teaching. In 2007, she was named Distinguished Researcher by the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. She has headed the Department of Neuro-ophthalmology at Cuba's Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute since 1977. Now called Cuban Epidemic Neuropathy, the 1990s epidemic that affected over 50,000 Cubans is the largest and best-documented of its kind in history. As researchers pressed to unravel the mystery of its etiology to hasten the epidemic's end, Dr Santiesteban recognized that similar outbreaks had occurred during Cuba's wars of independence in the late 1800s--described in her book, Epidemias y Endemias de neuropatía en Cuba. In the proverbial eye of the storm during the 1990s epidemic, she shares her reflections below on the context, causes, evolution and lessons learned from the challenge that put Cuba's health system to the test.