Only between October 11 and November 1, the Island identified 15,590 cases of chikungunya.
MIAMI, United States. – Cuba has become the country in the Americas with the highest incidence of chikungunya so far this year, with an average of 700 new cases daily in October and an accumulated rate of 183.43 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). sent in writing to the EFE agency.
According to this information, the Island identified 15,590 cases of chikungunya between October 11 and November 1 and accumulated 20,062 in the first ten months of the year. The majority of the sick are concentrated in Havana and the province of Matanzas.
With these figures, Cuba surpasses Brazil, which registers an incidence of 112.07 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as well as the averages for the Caribbean (43.53) and the entire American continent (26.00).
Three provinces at “very high risk”
PAHO specified that, based on the “epidemiological analysis and risk stratification” carried out by the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), the provinces of Havana, Matanzas and Cienfuegos “remain at very high risk of infection.” He added that “the highest proportion of cases is recorded in the age group of 19 to 54 years; that is, of active working age, with the consequent absenteeism from work as a result of the disabling pain caused by the disease.”
The regional health organization stressed that these data come from the national reports incorporated into its PLISA information platform and its arbovirus analysis portals, where the indicators of chikungunya, dengue and other vector-transmitted viruses in the Americas are systematized.
The new information comes just a week after the Cuban Government officially recognized an “epidemic” of chikungunya, dengue and Oropouche in the country, and described the epidemiological situation as “acute”, although “without providing hardly any figures.”
From “nonspecific febrile syndrome” to “epidemic”
On November 12, during a meeting with experts and scientists, the Cuban leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, described the rebound in cases of dengue, chikungunya and Oropouche as an “epidemic” and called for facing it “just as COVID-19 was dealt with.”
The regime continues to call the scenario “nonspecific febrile syndrome,” a formula that groups these arboviruses together because they all cause high fever.
At that same meeting, the head of the National Department of Communicable Diseases of MINSAP, José Raúl de Armas Fernández, defined 2025 as “the epidemic year” and spoke of 21,681 suspected cases of chikungunya in 14 provinces and 93 municipalities, in addition to the presence of active dengue in 38 municipalities, including all of Havana.
A few days before, had transcended that the Cuban public health system had treated “20,062 cases of chikungunya” and that the most affected provinces were Havana, Matanzas, Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Artemisa and Villa Clara.
The MINSAP figures and those communicated by PAHO to EFE coincide in the order of magnitude of the outbreak, but neither the official Cuban reports nor the PAHO office detail how many of these cases are confirmed by laboratory and how many correspond to presumptive diagnoses.
The rebound is not limited to chikungunya. The data delivered by PAHO to the Spanish agency indicate that, between January and September 2025, Cuba officially reported 9,602 cases of dengue, 115 of them serious, with three deaths. In the same period of 2024, the authorities had reported 985 cases, ten serious and no deaths, which is almost ten times less.
PAHO highlighted that, as in 2024, in 2025 “the circulation of serotypes 2, 3 and 4” of dengue has been detected in Cuba, which, according to the organization, “may have led to an increase in serious cases due to successive infections with the different serotypes.”
In terms of incidence, the country registers 87.79 cases of dengue per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate is below the averages for Central America (114.85), the Andean region (183.23) and the Southern Cone (1,262.23), but above the Latin Caribbean, where the indicator is 54.59 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Oropouche: Cuba also leads regional advocacy
Regarding Oropouche, PAHO informed EFE that it has evidence of 29,040 cases in the “epidemic” registered between the second half of 2024 and the first months of 2025, of which 123 presented “neurological complications.”
According to the same data, four out of every five cases of the Oropouche outbreak were identified in 2024, “when Cuba ranked as the country in the Americas with the most cases in absolute terms (24,259) – ahead of Brazil (13,856) and Peru (1,324) – and relative terms (214.36 infections per 100,000 inhabitants).”
In 2025, Cuba also has the highest incidence rate of Oropouche in the Americas, with 36.40 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, well above Panama (14.36) and Brazil (5.60), according to information released by PAHO.
