This Monday, ‘CubaNet’ reported the death of a 35-year-old man allegedly due to dengue hemorrhagic fever.
MIAMI, United States. – The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) recognized for the first time the death of three people from dengue in Cuba so far in 2025, without specifying ages, dates or provinces. The figure was communicated by Vice Minister Carilda Peña García in an appearance disclosed by the official press. The official added that the virus “is being transmitted in 36 municipalities in 12 provinces of the country.”
The official note also confirmed the simultaneous circulation of chikungunya—of “higher incidence”—and Oropouche.
The public communication from MINSAP comes after weeks of social alarm and previous denials from official bodies. While reports of infections and deaths grew, authorities insisted on denying any death. The Minister of Public Health himself, José Ángel Portal, stated: “No one can hide an epidemic or the dead.”
This Monday, CubaNet reported the death of a 35-year-old young man allegedly due to dengue hemorrhagic fever, according to complaints from family, friends and neighbors on social networks.
“And the shameless Durán comes out [doctor Francisco Durán García, jefe de Epidemiología del MINSAP] and says that in the province of Matanzas and in all of Cuba there are no deaths. What a disgusting dictatorship. Until when?” commented on Facebook Lisandra Carabeo, friend of the victim.
Yuniel’s death occurs in the midst of an arbovirus epidemic that is spreading throughout the country and while Durán García, national director of Epidemiology, officially denies deaths in the province. “In Matanzas and throughout Cuba there are no deaths,” stated last weekin response to rumors of more than a dozen deaths.
In his speech this Wednesday, Peña García maintained that “Cuba is a country that has an endemic of (…) dengue, that is, during the 12 months of the year the country has samples, presents, confirms or diagnoses cases of dengue.”
The official also pointed out two annual critical moments—“around week number 20 and then around week 40”—and attributed the rebound to temperature and humidity conditions favorable to the Aedes aegypti. “At those two times of the year, as the generation of the vector increases, it bites more and, of course, there is an increase in the disease,” he said.
The vice minister also described the expansion of chikungunya in Havana, Artemisa, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Granma and Guantánamo, with “sporadic cases” in Perico (Matanzas), where was detected for the first time this year.
Likewise, he clarified that chikungunya “is not associated with critical cases or deaths.” In parallel, he insisted on the sufficiency of supplies: “We now have enough insecticide and abatement in the country to carry out actions in the strata where there is active transmission.”
However, this same Wednesday, during an interview at the Midday News, The vice minister of Public Health recognized fuel limitations that prevent “carrying out large fumigations as in the past.”
“We have to fumigate, we have to abate, we have to destroy possible deposits that become vector-generating deposits,” he said. However, he admitted that “the vector indices are very high” and “the situation in the country at this time is complex to have the amount of fuel that we might need to carry out large fumigations like in the past.”
Outside the government circuit, agencies and international media highlighted the opacity of the data. EFE reported that the vice minister “did not detail the dates of the deaths, the profile of the dead or in which territories they resided,” although she confirmed the territorial scope of the transmission and the first registration in Perico.
The situation is inserted in an adverse regional context. A PAHO technical alert (August 28, 2025) documents that, until week 33, Cuba had confirmed eight cases of chikungunya—all in Matanzas—, with circulation of the ECSA genotype and a cumulative incidence of 0.08 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Regarding Oropouche – another of the viruses mentioned by MINSAP – Cuba was already facing transmission since 2024. In August of that year, Reuters reviewed more than 500 cases since their detection in the east of the country and described limitations of basic resources (fuel, equipment) that forced “directed” fumigations instead of massive ones, in an environment of accumulated garbage and blackouts. This logistical picture continues to be key to understanding the current scenario of multiple arboviruses.
