The Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) of Cuba reported this Monday that it has registered a total of 50,101 cases of chikungunya since last July, when an outbreak of the disease was detected, which currently remains in epidemic status, although a drop in incidence is reported.
Of that number of accumulated cases, 48,198 are registered with clinical suspicion and 1,903 confirmed with this arbovirus, as explained on state television by the Vice Minister of Health, Carilda Peña, and assured that in the last week a decrease of 955 cases was reported compared to the previous one.
Peña indicated that the incidence rate was 19.73 in that period versus 29.76 the previous week, so he considered the evolution to be “favorable.”
Regarding the dengue situation, he said that “it has not had significant changes.”
He noted that there was “a noticeable decrease” in cases, 42.6% less than the previous week, but without specifying the figure.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which bases its records on official figures, indicated that so far this year and until mid-December, Cuba has accumulated 28,850 cases of dengue.
Peña said that the behavior of both diseases has followed the expected forecast with a “sustained decrease” in the last eight weeks.
In its evaluation of the previous week, it included the registration of 41 people in critical and serious condition, most of them under 18 years of age, without reporting new deaths due to the epidemic, from which 55 people have died so far.
The vice minister stressed that pregnant women, recently given birth, newborns, and infants are “priority” groups, and warned young people and people over 65 years of age with comorbidities that they have to go to the doctor, and in the case of the sick, they must avoid transmission in their study and work centers.
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.
Two and a half weeks before recognizing the epidemic, the Cuban Government made an international request for help for Hurricane Melissa, which included enormous quantities of chemicals to combat the mosquito, the vector of transmission of dengue and chikungunya.
The epidemic has found fertile ground in Cuba to spread due, among other causes, to the serious economic crisis that is weighing down the country.
