Havana/In just one day, from Wednesday to Thursday, patients in intensive care rooms for chikungunya added 21 cases in Cuba. In total, there are now 81, of which 61 are in serious condition and 20 in critical condition. Of all of these, there are 48 minors. In the same 24 hours, in addition, 4,708 patients with “nonspecific febrile syndrome” have been registered, which is the way they enter the system, said the doctor. Francisco Durán Garcíadirector of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, in the space he inaugurated two days ago on Cuban television to report on the serious health situation that the Island is going through.
The official gave total data today, for the first time, and it is very worrying. Currently, there are 47,125 patients admitted for arbovirus, most of them in their own homes, the official explained. This is, he said, a “quite high figure” that “translates the complexity of the disease.”
Chikungunya continues to be the main disease affecting the country, with 30,726 cases. Yesterday, Durán said, 620 new suspects were reported. “In one day,” the official reaffirmed. “You realize the magnitude.” This, he clarified, “without taking into account a significant number of patients who do not go to the office.” There are 2,216 patients admitted due to this arbovirus.
This Wednesday, 107 cases of dengue were diagnosed in different provinces and a total of 2,098 have accumulated.
Regarding dengue, the outlook also continues to worsen. This Wednesday, 107 cases of dengue were diagnosed in different provinces and a total of 2,098 has accumulated. Of this disease, Durán said that “although it does not give symptoms as strong as chikungunya – I say strong because of the discomfort it causes in people -, it is very risky, because it tends to get complicated at a certain time, and if something as simple as hydration is not available, the person can die.”
Dr. Durán emphasized that the population should go to the doctor when a “sustained fever” occurs or when the person looks “like dehydrated.” “With that you have to run,” he warned.
He also spoke at length about the “high mosquito infestation Aedes aegypti” that continues to exist, which has to do “with the rain that has fallen, that is falling” and “the garbage dumps that accumulate there.” With the warning: “If fumigation is important, sanitation is important.”
What he did not talk about, this Thursday either, was the deaths. On social networks, however, they continue to multiply. A few days ago, the Cuban writer Jose Felix Leonresident in Barcelona (Spain), reported the death of a cousin in the Pinar del Río hospital due to covid. “The ICU of that hospital is not enough for the number of patients there are, but those who govern insist that there is no covid in Pinar del Río,” he denounced. “Cuba is in a situation like never before in its recent history. The diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypti “They kill and incapacitate people and the government of that paunchy man does not declare a state of emergency.”
“How long are they going to continue denying reality?” says a driver from Holguín who has been transporting relatives of people who died from a virus for weeks. In the Mayabe cemetery, he says, “they took a girl’s phone away for taking photos showing the number of burials and coffins that entered in a single day.” State Security guarded the cemetery.
In the document, published just three days ago, it confirms that the first outbreak of this arbovirus occurred last July, in Perico (Matanzas)
As this newspaper has proven, simple visits to funeral homes and cemeteries They show that the activity in them is greater these days. It is such that, at least in Havana, they are using vehicles from the Telecommunications Company Etecsa as hearses.
The space that Dr. Durán has now – similar to the one he had during the covid-19 pandemicfive years ago – gives the measure of the concern of the regime, which ignored the situation for months. The brand new “management and research protocol for patients with chikungunya” of the Ministry of Health reveals to what extent.
In the document, published just three days ago, it confirms that the first outbreak of this arbovirus occurred last July, in Parakeet (Matanzas), and from there it spread to the entire Island. In September, when infections due to viruses that could not be identified they had multipliedthe local health authorities limited themselves to reprimanding the alarmed population. “There is no mysterious disease in Cárdenas,” declared Andrés Lamas Acevedo, director of the Provincial Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Matanzas.
It was of little use epidemiological alert in that territory: the arbovirus had already escaped.
The action protocol offers detailed information about the symptoms, the stages of the disease and the risks for children, pregnant women and patients with other conditions, including dengue or covid coinfection. In addition, they recommend medications to alleviate fever and pain, such as paracetamol or metamizole and, if the above does not work, opiates, avoiding aspirin and steroids.
“While chikungunya has a low mortality rate and is therefore generally considered non-fatal, deaths frequently occur in cases with comorbidities or with rarer but severe symptoms of the disease,” the text warns. “Death is mainly due to pre-existing health problems or severe clinical manifestations in the elderly, infants or immunocompromised patients.”
In the last pages of the protocol, the use of “natural and traditional medicine” is recommended. These, they indicate, “based on an integrative model of care, can be articulated with the rest of the preventive measures and conventional treatment” and include phytotherapy, homeopathy, acupuncture or “related techniques” and ozone therapy, all of them without any scientific basis.
Added to this is the sudden start in the production of natural repellent made with extracts of neem and cana santa, as reported we will winon the part of the Medilip Oral Liquid Pharmaceutical Laboratory Company in Guantánamo, despite the fact that this type of anti-mosquitoes are not effective for the persistent Aedes aegyipti.
The lack of medicines, on the other hand, means that Cubans do not need this “encouragement” from the ruling party to seek alternative remedies. Also in Holguín, a seller says that given the spread of chikungunya and the limitations of movement and the fatigue it generates, “people are turning to drinking energy drinks to stay on their feet.” The result, says this mipymer, is that sales of these “anti-zombie products” have skyrocketed.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently issued a travel alert to the islandjust as the US Department of State did two months ago, due to the “worsening of the health situation derived from the multiplication of arboviruses.” The foreseeable decline in tourism, together with recent economic measures against foreign companieswhose accounts have been frozen, threatens to make the situation in Cuba apocalyptic.
