The Cuban health authorities recognize that the country is in a “complicated situation” due to the epidemic of dengue and chikungunya, and project an “unfavorable” evolution of the outbreak in the coming weeks.
The Vice Minister of Public Health, Carilda Peña, stated this Tuesday on television that the island faces a “complicated situation” due to the circulation of these two arboviruses, just 24 hours after announcing deaths linked to the epidemic for the first time.
Meanwhile, the director of Science and Technology of the University of Havana, Raúl Guinovart, predicted in a thematic meeting of experts that “the behavior of arboviruses in the coming weeks will be unfavorable,” as reported by the Presidency on its website.
In this regard, Peña explained that the cumulative number of people with “non-specific febrile syndrome”, the first common warning symptom of both diseases, is 39,819, of which 39,136 have subsequently been diagnosed with chikungunya.
Nearly half of those infected with this disease occurred in the month of November, since the cumulative total from 2025 to October was 20,062, according to data released by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Last week alone, 5,717 new cases were reported.
The official from the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) highlighted that in the previous day the number of patients in intensive care decreased (88, compared to 93 the previous day), although she warned that the majority of them are minors.
Dengue, oropouche
Peña did not offer data on the evolution of dengue on the island, beyond pointing out that it is present in 14 of the 15 provinces. At the beginning of November they recognized an annual total of more than 9,602 and since then the numbers have increased rapidly.
He also indicated that since September no cases of oropouche have been diagnosed in the country, another arbovirus that had circulated in the previous months in Cuba.
The Minsap confirmed this Monday a total of 33 deaths from chikungunya and dengue, of which 21 were minors. With the first official announcement of deaths, the epidemic took a qualitative leap.
Cuba registers 33 deaths from chikungunya and dengue, 21 of them minors
The authorities have recognized that official statistics are under-recorded since a good number of patients do not go to hospitals for treatment due to a lack of medicines.
The Cuban Government recognized for the first time on November 12 that the country was suffering from a chikungunya and dengue epidemic, despite the fact that the first cases were diagnosed in July and that infections had skyrocketed in September and October.
The epidemic has found fertile ground in Cuba to spread due to the serious economic crisis that the country is suffering, which limits the capacity for prevention – mainly through massive fumigation against mosquitoes -, control – with tests to confirm the type of disease – and care for the sick, due to lack of medicines.
Cuba also faces the epidemic with impaired public health: between 2021 and 2024 the health system lost 29% of its doctors and 17% of its nursing staff, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
