Havana/The disparity between official figures and citizen reports on deaths from arboviruses in Cuba has turned the health situation into the main reason for protest, above food shortages, deficiencies in basic services and other social problems. The Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) argues in its most recent report, published this Tuesday, that there are 87 deaths from dengue and chikungunya, compared to 33 that the Ministry of Public Health notified the day before. The data provided by the NGO, based in Miami, comes from testimonies collected on social networks.
The report also records that last November there were 346 protest actions, the highest number among all the categories analyzed and the main indicator of growing social discontent.
The OCC recalls that the Island is currently going through an epidemic of alleged arboviruses that have infected approximately three million people, a third of the population, as stated by the director of Epidemiology, Francisco Durán. The text regrets that the government response was excessively late, since almost four months passed from the first signs of alarm until the Government began to take visible measures.
The Island is currently going through an epidemic of alleged arboviruses that have infected three million people.
Likewise, the agency points out that this inaction occurs in a context where several aggravating factors converged; a particularly rainy summer, prolonged blackouts in most provinces, a health system with structural deficiencies and the existence of numerous sources of garbage that favored the proliferation of mosquitoes.
Citizens reported throughout this month that health centers were overwhelmed and that the presence of mosquitoes was increasing in their neighborhoods due to the absence of fumigation, in addition to pointing out the lack of essential medicines. The population has warned that the shortage of medical personnel and basic resources made it more difficult to care for those who fell ill, and to this was added the discomfort related to the way in which State resources are allocated. The report indicates that many people expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of investment in health while the military conglomerate Gaesa accumulates hundreds of millions of dollars in its bank accounts outside the country.
For many Cubans, the epidemic became a mirror of the accumulated deterioration of the health system, traditionally presented by the Government as one of its pillars. The demonstrations for health reasons in November show not only the impact of the epidemic, but also a deep crisis of confidence in the institutions in charge of protecting life and guaranteeing minimum conditions of medical care.
In that same month, an increase in violence was recorded, leaving twelve murders related to crime and gender violence, an additional reflection of the general deterioration in the population’s quality of life.
Beyond the epidemiological crisis, the report indicates that November was also marked by protests related to blackouts, lack of water, food shortages, housing problems after Hurricane Melissa and an increase in complaints of insecurity and repressive acts. These factors complete a panorama of strong social tension on the Island.
