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The severe viral epidemic affecting thousands of Cubans has transcended the borders of the Island and reached the international press, which agrees on the collapse of the healthcare system in the country.
Media outlets such as BBC, Univisión, and El País have published reports highlighting the collapse of the Cuban healthcare system in light of the rising cases of dengue, chikungunya, and oropouche, three mosquito-borne diseases that are spreading uncontrollably.
In the most recent report titled "It Looks Like a Zombie City: The Severe Epidemic of Viral Diseases Facing Cuba", BBC News Mundo describes scenes of patients doubled over in pain, hospitals without supplies, and neighborhoods filled with garbage and stagnant water, where the mosquito Aedes aegypti multiplies daily.
The text quotes the Cuban journalist Yirmara Torres, who recently wrote, “Matanzas today looks like a city of zombies... that’s how we are, bent over, in pain. Just step out onto the street and look.”
"The virus" is the threat that the people of Cuba fear the most today, already hit hard by shortages of food, medicine, and electricity,” emphasizes BBC.
The coverage by international media has highlighted what the regime tries to downplay: the collapse of the healthcare system and the lack of transparency in the management of epidemiological data.
According to the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), at least 47 people have died from the so-called "arboviruses," although experts and activists claim that the actual number could be much higher.
"People prefer to stay home and self-medicate rather than go to hospitals without medicine or proper conditions," said a professor interviewed by the BBC from Havana.
The report also details that hospitals are lacking gloves, syringes, and antibiotics, and that patients must turn to the informal market or shipments from family members abroad to receive treatment.
The contrast between the official discourse —which insists on referring to Cuba as a “medical power”— and the current reality has generated outrage among Cubans.
Complaints from patients and doctors are multiplying on social media, while the regime continues to blame the "blockade" by the United States for the crisis in the healthcare system.
However, images of ruined hospitals, piles of garbage in the streets, and neighborhoods that have not been fumigated contradict the official propaganda.
"If the power goes out and you can't use fans, the mosquitoes come in and bite you," said a young engineer from Havana.
"With garbage in the corners and stagnant water, all of that generates more mosquitoes and diseases," he emphasized.
The BBC highlights that the arbovirus outbreak comes at a time when the Cuban healthcare system is experiencing its worst moment in history: lacking resources, with poorly paid professionals — around 30 dollars a month at the real exchange rate — and a massive exodus of doctors that has left hospitals empty and services shut down.
Organizations such as the WHO and the PAHO confirmed that Cuba has strengthened epidemiological surveillance and fumigation campaigns, but they acknowledge that unsanitary conditions and a lack of infrastructure facilitate the spread of the virus.
The epidemic can no longer be concealed. The images of empty streets, sick individuals in their homes, and hospitals without medicine have become the symbol of the failure of the Cuban socialist model that boasted of being a “medical powerhouse” for decades.
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