After months of inaction, health authorities warn of an “exponential” rise in chikungunya and dengue fever.
14ymedio, Havana, November 7, 2025 — “At my workplace, there are 14 doctors, nurses and staff members recovering from the new viruses,” a worker at the Doctor Cosme Ordóñez Carceller polyclinic in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución municipality tells this newspaper. “Most of my colleagues are ill,” she adds, confessing to feeling “overwhelmed” by the number of daily cases she has to deal with at the medical centre.
Tamara Alonso, who lives in Lawton, writes: “Here, every family has had at least one person with the disease, at a minimum. On my block, everyone has had it and is still going through it. There are three of us in my house, and all three of us had it. I also have a friend who went to Vedado four days ago, and he told me that on 23rd Avenue, almost everyone was walking around like robots. It’s horrible, both during and after.”
The health crisis has the entire country in check. The José Martí Pérez Paediatric Teaching Hospital in Sancti Spíritus has increased its capacity in response to the rise in arbovirus cases in the province. According to its director general, Ramón Aquino Lorenzo, 20 beds have been added to the 152 already in place, and the emergency room and nursing areas have been reinforced. The doctor asks the population “not to stay at home” and “to see a doctor in the early hours to prevent possible complications that may arise in this type of pathology,” something that Cubans tend to resist, especially due to the shortage of resources and reagents in health centres.
The news, published on Friday in the provincial newspaper, along with other reports in the official media about the health emergency, reflects the sudden concern of the authorities after months of ignoring it. On Thursday, Adelante warned of an “exponential” increase in Camagüey in diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, especially chikungunya and dengue. In the provincial capital, there is “a daily average of 450 people continue reading
The scene described here seems to be taken from the dystopian film ‘Juan de los Muertos’
Clinical trials also began on Thursday for the drug Juzvinza, intended for the treatment of “joint inflammation that persists in many patients after the infection has been overcome” in chikungunya. Dr Perla María Trujillo Pedroza, a specialist in comprehensive general medicine at the Manuel Piti Fajardo Polyclinic in Santo Domingo (Villa Clara), who had been highly critical of the authorities’ inaction in the face of the epidemic, welcomed the announcement of the trials – “Late? Yes, but something is better than nothing,” she wrote on her Facebook page – although she called for “continued work on prevention, on which very little has been done.”
Many Cubans in exile are distressed about the situation of their relatives in Cuba. “Some of my uncles and aunts in Cruces, Cienfuegos, are bedridden,” a Cuban woman living in the US tells this newspaper. “They are very old, aged 89, 91 and 94. The only one still on her feet was a 69-year-old daughter, but she fell ill this week.” The scene she describes seems to be taken from the dystopian film Juan de los Muertos, by Cuban director Alejandro Brugués: “During the day, in the part of town where they live, you don’t see a soul on the streets. Everyone is convalescing. And at night, with no electricity, as is almost always the case, all you can hear are moans. In the silence, you can hear people giving vent to their pain.”
Hurricane Melissa not only left broken roofs, flooding and endless power cuts in its wake, it also complicated the health situation, which was already serious before the cyclone struck. Arboviruses – dengue, Zika, chikungunya, the more recent Oropouche, and others not yet recognised – are no longer seasonal events, but part of everyday life in neighbourhoods where water stagnates without reaching household tanks, garbage accumulates even though the government poses for photos in “volunteer work” and sanitation depends more on neighbourhood ingenuity than on the management of the authorities.
The mother of Duannis León Taboada, a political prisoner from the Island-wide ’11J’ protests of 11 July 2021, reported that her son has been ill since Wednesday and has still not received medical attention. “My worst fear has come true. My son is unjustly imprisoned and has been struck down by the damn virus. He has a fever and is vomiting and in a lot of pain,” wrote Jenni Taboada. Her message conveys uncertainty and despair: “What do they want, for him to die? I am extremely concerned for my son’s life,” she concluded.
Opacity in Cuba is part of the political model. For decades, the island was a regional benchmark in epidemiological surveillance. Today, there is talk of “controlling outbreaks” but not of incidence rates. It is claimed that “reagents are available”, while patients and doctors quietly confirm that diagnoses depend on luck or on who you know in the health sector.
Arboviruses find fertile ground in a population without defences or minimum hygiene conditions.
Tamara Moisés, living in Santiago de Cuba, posted extensively on social media about the critical deterioration of living conditions after the hurricane, which has had a direct impact on the spread of arboviruses. According to her testimony, the city has been without sanitation for more than nine days, with accumulated rubbish and branches, blocked drains and an explosion of mosquitoes and gnats. In her street, with only a few houses, 17 cases of chikungunya have already been reported.
Moisés attributes the spread and severity of these diseases not only to unsanitary conditions, but also to widespread immune deterioration caused by poor nutrition, which she describes as “starvation.” She also points to critical shortages of food, medicine and drinking water, as well as endless power cuts, no gas to boil water and pharmacies without basic medicines.
Her testimony warns of a possible worsening of the health crisis with risks of multiple outbreaks, an increase in tuberculosis and diseases associated with malnutrition, in a context that the Santiago native describes as “a failed state” and “inhumane,” where arboviruses find fertile ground in a population without defences or minimum hygiene conditions.
State media outlets talk about “anti-vector battles,” “community mobilisations,” and “the people’s struggle alongside the authorities.” But these reports never mention the essential details: How many people are sick? In how many municipalities? How fast are infections spreading? How many deaths are actually attributed to complications from arbovirus infections, and how many are diluted into generic clinical categories?
Translated by GH
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