It is not the virus that is making Cubans sick, it’s the system
14ymedio, Madrid, Eugenia Gutiérrez, October 26, 2025 — A few days ago, Cuba’s Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, was obligated to break his silence in the face of what could be the biggest epidemiological crisis that the Island has experienced in recent times.
Specifically, he said: “The situation is under control,” and “we have to convey to people that we know we have problems, but we are doing everything to save their lives.” With these words, the minister broke the silence, yes, but remained in denial, the usual practice of a regime that avoids accountability by any means. If the magnitude of the tragedy is denied, scrutiny is reduced.
Today in Cuba there are three viruses circulating simultaneously: dengue, chikungunya and oropouche, along with nine respiratory viruses, as well as an alarming increase in acute diarrhoeal diseases and cases of hepatitis A. This means entire families are infected, from children to the elderly, without adequate resources or assistance.
Of the country’s 15 provinces, these viruses are present in 12, as recently recognized by Doctor Francisco Duran Garcia, national director of Epidemiology, a face known to Cubans since the covid-19 pandemic. As a result, according to official data, 80 per cent of the national territory is currently affected.
This systematic denial once again breaks the hearts of Cubans
As for the number of deaths, Doctor Duran himself stated on October 8 that there were not 11 deaths a day, as was being said, nor were the hospitals collapsed. Again the discourse of denial, and the opacity and lies that no one believes anymore.
This systematic denial once again breaks the hearts of Cubans who suffer from these diseases themselves. Many report the lack of reagents to identify the viruses, a shortage of serums and medicines, and the collapse of hospitals.
In the absence of official transparency and the silence of the authorities, it has been the citizens themselves who have taken on the role of warning, denouncing and telling the truth about what is happening. They are victims of the abandonment of a regime that, instead of taking responsibility, shifts the burden to the people, requiring them to implement impossible measures in the midst of endless blackouts, lack of water and the accumulation of garbage on every corner.
Cuba needs a change of system, not palliatives and empty promises
Cubans once again are depending on aid from the exile community, which the regime itself is forced to accept but never acknowledges
The health crisis is not an isolated fact: it is the reflection of a failed state, a structural and multidimensional crisis that has only one possible exit. It’s not the virus that is making Cubans sick, it’s the system. In a country with no drinking water, no electricity, no garbage collection, no medicines and no functioning hospitals, everything is possible except for a life of dignity.
How long will this suffering last? How long will there be this official resistance, for which the Cuban people themselves pay? Cuba needs a change in the system, not palliatives or empty promises, because only when the system changes can lives be saved.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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