More than 50,000 Cubans were hospitalized at the end of November 2025 for arboviral infections, including chikungunya, dengue, and Zika. This once-unfamiliar disease now dominates daily conversations and highlights the country's health challenges. Authorities have downplayed the issue as basic services fail, aiding the spread of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
The word “chikungunya” has shifted from an exotic term to everyday language in Cuba, capturing the struggles of 2025. Reports indicate more than 50,000 people were hospitalized last week for arboviral infections, encompassing chikungunya, dengue, and Zika. In provinces like Villa Clara, Camagüey, and Holguín, hospitals are stretched to their limits, with family doctors privately acknowledging the situation is out of control.
At first, authorities downplayed the virus's presence, using vague phrases like “autochthonous transmission.” Yet the epidemiological decline ties directly to failing essential services. Garbage collection has become sporadic, piling up waste that breeds mosquitoes. Blackouts force doors and windows open at night, prime time for Aedes aegypti activity. Water supply is infrequent, contaminated, or low-pressure, leading to storage in containers that turn into breeding grounds.
The anti-vector program, once featuring large teams of fumigators and inspectors, vanished for years and was only partially revived recently amid the health emergency. Personal accounts highlight the severity: an elderly man endured ten days of fever without admission due to bed shortages; a mother spent 1,200 pesos— a quarter of her monthly salary—on private fumigation amid state insecticide shortages; a strong young man writhes in pain as if his bones were rusted metal. Overcrowded funeral homes spread via rumors faster than official Ministry of Public Health bulletins.
Common symptoms involve fever, rashes, joint swelling, and extreme weakness, leaving patients bedridden or restricted to liquid diets. “Chikungunya” needs no definition anymore; it symbolizes a nation hobbled by a mosquito and its fallout.