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The official portal Cubadebate reported this Saturday on a version of a report by the news agency AP that attributes the severe shortage of medical supplies affecting cancer patients in Cuba to the sanctions from Washington, using the case of Irisleydis Tristá, a 34-year-old woman who has been unable to monitor the progress of her tumor for four years, as an emblematic example.
Tristá, the mother of a 13-year-old boy and a resident of Batabanó, about 70 kilometers south of Havana, has undergone two surgeries and several sessions of radiation therapy to combat a tumor that is pressing against her vena cava.
In recent months, however, not a single computerized tomography scan has been possible, as the equipment at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, one of the most important in the country, is out of service due to a lack of spare parts.
"I feel that my life is in danger," declared Tristá to AP through sobs. "I don't know if it has grown (the tumor mass). We have no way of knowing."
The framing of the report reproduced by Cubadebate blames the "energy blockade" by the United States for the crisis, which worsened after the capture of then Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3.
Since then, the White House has threatened countries that sell fuel to Cuba and tightened trade measures against Havana, which, according to the text, has restricted the arrival of medicines and medical technology at Cuban ports.
What the official narrative omits is that the deterioration of the Cuban healthcare system is structural and predates the recent sanctions, considering that oncology patients were already being sent home without chemotherapy in Ciego de Ávila since October 2025 due to a lack of basic equipment.
Cuban hospitals lack syringes, gauze, vaccines, reagents, anesthetics, and cytostatics, as well as spare parts for hemodialysis machines and tomographs.
One of the most alarming facts from the report is the impact of the sanctions on minors. According to an official report from June, the survival rate for children with cancer fell from 85% to 65% compared to levels before the tightening of the sanctions.
Doctor Yolainy Romero Rodríguez, a specialist at the Oncology Hospital of Havana, explained to AP that they have had to replace first-line medications with second and third-line alternatives, which are less effective.
"We have had deceased children. Two so far this year," the doctor lamented. "This situation is horrific."
The doctor also noted that children from distant provinces must come to the hospital every 21 days, but "sometimes a week or even up to 15 days passes during which they cannot come due to the fuel issue."
Adriana Felipe García, mother of Nashly Zerquera, a four-year-old girl with cancer who resides in Sancti Spíritus, 350 kilometers from Havana, summarized the situation in a few words: "It's very tough."
According to data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), about 16,000 cancer patients in Cuba need radiation therapy and 12,400 require chemotherapy, in a system whose infrastructure can only accommodate around 9,000 patients annually.
Mario Cruz Peñate, representative of both organizations on the island, acknowledged to AP that the fuel shortage creates "quite large distortions" in health services that affect "not only the service itself but the entire process surrounding continuity of care."
The contrast between the regime's propaganda and reality is stark. On June 4, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Prime Minister Manuel Marrero inaugurated an outpatient unit at the National Oncology Institute as a propaganda act, while the system is crumbling.
This Saturday, the regime admitted that health indicators have fallen to unprecedented levels, as infant mortality has doubled to 9.3 per thousand live births, over 100,000 people are waiting for surgeries, and only 30% of the basic medicine supply is available on the island.
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