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VICE
Air Date: Friday, April 28, 2017
Time Slot: 11:00 PM-11:30 PM EST on HBO
Episode Title: (#63/509) "Medical Détente & Bananas"
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Show #63 (season 5, edition 9)

Debut: FRIDAY, APRIL 28 (11:00-11:30 p.m. ET/PT)

"Medical Détente": Cuba's health system is one of the most efficient in the world. Despite the decades-long U.S. embargo, the country's biotech industry flourished, creating astonishing treatments for a number of diseases at costs not seen in the States. Now, with trade and travel restrictions loosening, millions of Americans may soon be able to gain access to these breakthrough medicines for cancer and diabetes. VICE correspondent Gianna Toboni travels to Cuba to see the potential treatments and cures in action.

"Bananas": There are thousands of types of bananas but Americans have eyes for only one kind - the very marketable yellow Cavendish, which accounts for 95% of global banana exports. But this multi-billion dollar industry is under threat. A fungus called Panama Disease is rapidly infecting portions of the world's Cavendish crops and could spell disaster for the monoculture-dependent worldwide banana trade. VICE heads to the heart of banana country in Latin American and the Philippines to see the devastating effects of the disease and to investigate what the loss of the banana would really mean besides a less colorful lunchbox.

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