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Cuba is facing a silent and growing crisis of dementia that, according to research by Diario de Cuba, combines alarming mortality rates, lack of institutional response, and families dealing with a devastating condition on their own amid the collapse of the healthcare system.
According to the 2024 Health Statistical Yearbook, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are the sixth leading cause of death in the country. In 2024, there were 6,251 deaths due to these causes, compared to 5,839 the previous year, an increase of 7.1%.
The crude mortality rate increased from 57.0 to 63.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the available historical series.
The figures are not new, but they are on the rise. Already in 2019, Cuba recorded 45.4 deaths from dementia per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double the Latin American regional average of 22.3, according to the OECD report "Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean."
A study published in 2021 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health ranks Cuba as the third country with the highest prevalence of dementia in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, with 10.8% of those over 65 affected—approximately 108,000 people—trailing behind the Dominican Republic (11.7%) and Puerto Rico (11.6%).
The state portal Infomed projected in 2020 that the cases of dementia in Cuba would rise to 260,000 by 2030 and to 520,000 by 2050.
The demographic backdrop exacerbates the situation. Cuba is the most aged country in Latin America, with 25.7% of its population being 60 years or older by the end of 2024, and it is projected that this percentage will reach 30% by 2030.
Mass emigration —more than 1.4 million Cubans since 2020— has left 17.4% of older adults without close family members.
The psychologist Yunier Broche-Pérez, from the Prisma Behavioural Center in the United States, explained to Diario de Cuba that "dementia is not a specific disease; it is a syndrome that can include memory loss, difficulty thinking, disorientation, challenges in decision-making, or changes in behavior that affect daily life."
He also clarified that "Alzheimer's can cause dementia, but not all dementia is Alzheimer's."
Breche-Pérez warned that between 40% and 45% of cases are linked to modifiable factors such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, social isolation, and depression. However, he noted that “there are 55% of factors that we cannot modify or whose impact is unknown,” with age being the primary one.
Individual stories reveal the extent of abandonment. Carlos, 66 years old and a resident of Moa, Holguín, was overmedicated with Haloperidol and has been left bedridden.
"Now, in addition to dementia, she also has Parkinson's associated with the same treatment," her daughter reported. Raquel Rosales, former host of Radio Progreso, died alone in the hallway of her Havana building; it was her neighbors who fed and bathed her.
The independent journalist Juan González Febles (1950-2025) ended his days with cognitive decline after years of harassment from State Security.
Doraiky Águila, a 48-year-old woman from Havana with memory loss, disappeared on March 15, 2025 during a widespread blackout in the Lawton neighborhood and has still not been found more than a year later. Her family is offering a reward of 350,000 Cuban pesos due to the lack of an official alert protocol for missing adults with cognitive impairment.
The state care system is clearly insufficient: only 156 nursing homes with 12,697 beds cover the entire national territory, and 51 municipalities are completely lacking in services for the elderly.
The estimated annual cost of Alzheimer's in Cuba amounts to 782.7 million dollars in direct and indirect expenses, according to Alzheimer's Disease International, a burden that almost entirely falls on families who, for the most part, face it without support or guidance.
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