Doctors suggest that flights to the largest of the Antilles be suspended due to the epidemic of dengue, chikungunya and Oropouche virus.
MIAMI, United States. – Two medical organizations based in Miami asked international health authorities to raise the travel alert to Cuba to the highest level and, in practice, suspend flights to the largest of the Antilles due to the epidemic of dengue, chikungunya and Oropouche virus.
According to a report of The New Heraldspecialists from Solidaridad Sin Fronteras (SSF) and Cruz Verde Internacional reported that they sent letters to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and extended their call to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and UNICEF, to raise the travel alert to Cuba to level 4, the category that recommends not traveling due to risk to the lives of travelers.
On December 1, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) confirmed the death of 33 people due to arbovirus in the country, in a context that it defined as a “complex epidemiological situation”, with widespread circulation of dengue and chikungunya.
In the television magazine Good morningthe Vice Minister of Health, Carilda Peña García, explained that of that total, 12 deaths correspond to dengue – seven of them in children under 18 years of age – and 21 to chikungunya, with 14 deaths being minors.
The authorities also reported that in just one week, 5,717 new cases of chikungunya were reported, most of them classified as suspicious due to clinical diagnosis, with a cumulative total of close to 39,000 cases, of which around 1,260 have been confirmed by PCR. Dengue, according to the vice minister herself, remains active in the 14 provinces, 43 municipalities and 51 health areas of the country.
What Miami NGOs ask for
Based on this scenario, Solidaridad Sin Fronteras and Cruz Verde Internacional have intensified their public campaign for the United States and multilateral organizations to raise the travel alert on Cuba to the maximum and consider a health intervention on the Island. In recent interviews and press conferences, both organizations maintain that the Cuban Government hides the real magnitude of the outbreak and does not have the capacity to control the situation.
“The situation is very serious,” said Dr. Alfredo Melgar to NTN24questioning the initial official version that described the problem as a “nonspecific febrile syndrome.” “It is not a febrile syndrome. They are three very serious infectious diseases that have their complications. Dengue, chikungunya and Oropuche.”
According to these organizations, the immediate objective is for the CDC and the Florida Department of Health to raise the travel alert on Cuba from level 2 – travel with caution – to level 4, which implies recommending not traveling, due to the risk of contagion and export of cases to the United States.
The risk of exporting the epidemic to Florida
One of the main concerns of doctors in Miami is the possibility that travelers from Cuba will introduce or amplify outbreaks in Florida. “Travelers who go to Cuba and contract the disease have an incubation period of three to seven days, in which they do not have symptoms, but arrive infected in Florida,” Melgar warned in statements collected by The Nation.
The doctor has warned in different media that he has treated patients in his private practice who returned from the Island with acute febrile symptoms and severe joint pain, compatible with chikungunya and other arboviruses.
Melgar’s testimonies also point to the collapse of the Cuban hospital system, particularly in pediatric emergency services. “Many children arrive at emergency rooms with high fever and headache, which are symptoms of meningoencephalitis, and as they spend hours waiting, when they are treated they are very serious,” the doctor said.
Melgar explained that the Oropouche virus can be complicated by meningoencephalitis and pneumonia, which increases the risk of neurological sequelae and death, especially in children and vulnerable people.
While Miami NGOs ask that the alert be raised to level 4, the CDC shows a different picture for now. For Oropouche virus, the body maintains a level 1 notice for the Americas, which includes Cuba, which means “practice usual precautions” for travelers.
In the case of chikungunya, the CDC did issue a specific level 2 advisory for Cuba“practice enhanced precautions,” due to the current outbreak on the Island.
Regarding dengue, the situation in Cuba is framed in global dengue advisory level 1 for multiple countries, including the Island, which indicates that the disease is a permanent risk and recommends protective measures against mosquito bites, but does not advise against travel.
