‘We are dying’: Cuba sinks into a health crisis amid medicine shortages and misdiagnosis

Hospitals are overwhelmed and fatalities are soaring. The island is suffering from combined viruses that include dengue, chikungunya, Oropouche and other respiratory diseases

Cuba today is indeed a country of sick citizens who do not know exactly what they are suffering from. All they know is that they are being infected by “the virus” – a sinister ghost that has drifted across the entire island, wiping out its inhabitants. First come the high fevers, then red spots develop, or else peeling skin. Vomiting, diarrhea and headaches are inevitable. The hands and knees swell. Victims can barely stand on their feet, and there are those who have not walked again even after the worst is over. A limp indicates a virus survivor. Citizens who drag their legs or complain about achy joints have likely also been hit.

Almost all families in Cuba have had someone sick at home due to the country’s epidemiological crisis. The disease is in fact a combination of several mosquito-borne viruses, a model of “combined arboviruses” that includes dengue, Oropouche and chikungunya, as well as other respiratory viruses such as H1N influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and Covid-19. According to figures published by the Ministry of Public Health, 5,717 new cases of chikungunya were reported in the last week, bringing the number of patients suffering from it to 38,938. As for dengue, the ministry said the disease remains active in the country’s 14 provinces and 113 municipalities.

An alarming 33 deaths were reported at the beginning of the week which the government was forced to recognize, including 21 minors – the demographic most affected by these arboviruses along with the elderly.

Now, with hospitals and morgues overflowing, it is difficult for the ministry to ignore the evidence, though many Cubans maintain that the number of the ill and the dead is far higher than the state is willing to acknowledge. The government has managed to disguise the figures by issuing death certificates that fail to mention arboviruses.

Finally, the Cuban government has been left with no choice but to recognize the “national epidemiological situation” that has Cubans in a state of panic. The outlook is so critical that some have appealed to the international community not to let their so-called diseased ship sink with its millions of people on board. While state officials downplay the matter, insisting that it is not an outbreak exclusive to Cuba, and that cases are being reported in Brazil and Colombia, the truth is that the general shortages and state of collapse in Cuba have severely undermined the authorities’ ability to control the disease.

The country suffers a 70% deficit of medication supplies but what worries Cubans most is the lack of proper diagnostic procedures in health institutions that can tell them what type of virus they are suffering from. It was reported that they were discarding the samples a lot of the time because there were no reagents to process them, and the patients were given a negative result.

Several Cubans interviewed by EL PAÍS are concerned that the dearth of good food is damaging their chances of recovery. A nutritional guide to which EL PAÍS had access, circulated by the Pedro Kourí Institute (IPK), reports that, among other things, chikungunya consumes iron reserves, decreases albumin and other proteins, and raises C-reactive protein, all factors that weaken the immune system. According to IPK, a prestigious research center for infectious disease, it is vital to eat eggs, yogurt, whey, fish such as salmon, tuna or sardines, vegetables, nuts and certain grains. Most of these products are inaccessible to most Cubans.