Madrid/The last five years has been devastating in health terms for Cuba. Mortality rates grew exponentially in each and every one of the ten main causes of death on the Island, if compared to those of 2020. Only in 2021 – when the covid-19 pandemic hit the Island most virulently – some figures were worse than those of 2024. The most striking case is that of deaths from influenza and pneumonia, whose mortality rate was 59.4 per 100,000 five years ago, compared to 114.3 last year, with a brutal acceleration since 2023, when the figure was 87.9.
He Public Health Yearbook of the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) 2024 It accounts for the situation in figures, although due to the sharp drop in population in these years the rate is much more informative. Heart diseases continue to be the most lethal in Cuba, with a great leap every five years, since it went from a rate of 260 per 100,000 to 360, a hundred point difference, in the midst of an increasingly pressing lack of medications, including hypertensive medications.
Cancers once again stand out on the list: they are the second cause of death in Cuba and in five years they went from 234.7 deaths per 100,000 to 261. In this case, the growth is also notable compared to 2021 (244), despite the fact that that year many diseases were cornered by the worrying covid-19. It is not surprising, considering that Cuban doctors have been denouncing for months that there is less and less diagnostic equipment and resources, so cancers arrive in incurable stagesnot to mention the problems with the treatments.
Cancers once again stand out on the list: they are the second cause of death in Cuba and in five years they went from 234.7 deaths per 100,000 to 261
Cerebrovascular diseases – another consequence of the lack of antihypertensive medications – also sharply increased their fatality rate, from the rate of 98 per 100,000 in 2020 to 121 last year. They are followed, in order, by accidents – with a jump from 48.8 to 68.8 –, chronic respiratory diseases – from 31.8 to 40.7 – and arterial diseases – from 25 to 30 –. More constant were the diabetes data, the only indicator that fell, only a few tenths, and cirrhosis, which rose 0.3 points.
The list is closed by suicides, which, although they contrast precisely when comparing 2020 with 2024 -13.9 to 16.5-, have maintained a rate of certain stability this five-year period. With that number, Cuba is located in an area of relative centrality in the world: very far from the champions Lesotho and South Korea (28) and parallel to the United States (15), but doubling a culturally very close country, Spain (8).
These are just data from one of the many indicators contained in the yearbook, some of them as well-known as the setback that Cuba is experiencing in issues such as infant and maternal mortality or low birth weight. The figures are not very bad if compared to surrounding countries, but when you look at the Island itself, you can say without palliatives that any time in the past was better. Almost all the data has worsened, by far, since Miguel Díaz-Canel came to power and one of the many explanations is in the decreasing number of doctors on the Island.
The year 2024 closed with 75,364 doctors in the national health system and, although the document does not specify it, it can be assumed that the more than 20,000 who carry out missions abroad also belong to it, so a large amount would have to be deducted from the number of doctors serving in Cuba. In 2020, there were 103,835, which denotes a significant leak in just five years. Family doctors in the community also fell, going from 21,589 to 12,912, the majority only in the last year. However, it can be expected that many of them have moved into a specialty. The total number of doctors in 2023 was 80,763, of which 27,535 were in family medicine. A year later the number was 75,364, but only 12,912 were family members.
With the data available, the yearbook maintains that there are 131 patients for each doctor, a figure that would be more than acceptable if it were not for the fact that, once again, doctors who are outside the country are not taken into account. Subtracting the doctors who are not on the Island, the number rises to 180.
The yearbook maintains that there are 131 patients for each doctor, a figure that would be more than acceptable if it were not for the fact that, once again, doctors who are outside the country are not taken into account.
The drop in stomatologists, pharmacists, nursing staff, technicians and the rest of the health personnel is constant. It occurs in all groups with one exception, the year 2021, when during the pandemic retired personnel and students were mobilized to integrate into a system that greatly needed all hands. In 2022, human resources will decrease again and each year they will do so more, making it clear that not even the insignificant salary increases with which the Government has tried to retain personnel have been able to stop an exodus that occurs abroad – exile – and inside, towards a more rewarding private sector both in economic terms and in working and human conditions.
Among other significant data that the report leaves, the section dedicated to notifiable diseases is striking, where focusing on the rate is once again the most practical thing in the face of the pronounced drop in the population. Acute respiratory diseases leave a surprising rate of 26,259 per 100,000, which although it decreases compared to 2023, is 4,000 points above the 22,772 in 2020. Acute diarrheal diseases also remain at notable rates, even more so when comparing the 928.5 per 100,000 in 2020 with the 1,647.2 in 2024. The situation unleashed in the last month throughout the Isla, the result of a fatal combination of viruses, garbage, lack of water and shortage of personnel and combat means in both sanitation and health, promises to raise these numbers even further when the year comes to an end.
