Havana, Cuba – It used to be a point of pride. At the William Soler Pediatric Hospital in Havana, more than 90 percent of newborns who needed neonatal surgery survived their procedures. But in recent months, Alioth Fernandez, head of the hospital's surgical unit, has witnessed an alarming decline. “Now, that figure has plummeted,” Fernandez said. “In the first half of this year, we have seen very high mortality among newborns needing surgery, with more than half of the cases resulting in death.”
Fernandez is among a growing number of doctors and patients in Cuba expressing alarm over deteriorating healthcare conditions. Six months ago, on January 29, US President Donald Trump announced a fuel blockade against Cuba, threatening any country that exports fuel to the island with punishing tariffs. The aim was to weaken Cuba's government. The result has been nearly daily blackouts lasting up to 20 hours, as well as shortages of essential items.
The pressure has exacerbated strains on Cuba's healthcare system, once considered the flagship achievement of the country's 1959 revolution. Although healthcare in Cuba remains free, public, and universal, experts say its reach and quality have diminished significantly. Fernandez is seeing the toll of the political conflict firsthand in his young patients. “Children are the least to blame,” Fernandez said. “Because children certainly have no ideology, nor did they ask to be born in a ‘communist’ country.”
For Fernandez, the most distressing part has been how avoidable some of the deaths have been. Many did not occur as the result of surgical complications but rather from infections, driven by diminished hygiene standards, malnutrition, and the limited availability of antibiotics. “Now, we have to play God. When you secure the resources for a single surgery, we have to decide who gets to be operated on,” Fernandez said. United Nations human rights commissioner Volker Turk called for sanctions relief, stating, “Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines. This is unacceptable.”
For more than 60 years, Cuba has operated under a comprehensive US trade embargo, the longest in modern history. The embargo has hindered Cuba from accessing medicines and equipment available to much of the world. The Trump regime has heightened those pressures, designating Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism” and issuing an executive order in May barring companies from providing support to the Cuban government. Two of the world’s biggest shipping companies – Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM – abandoned their operations in Cuba.
In February, Havana announced a package of emergency energy-saving measures, including the suspension of all non-essential medical services. But non-essential does not mean unimportant. Fernandez explained that preventive healthcare helps doctors catch potentially fatal conditions like appendicitis sooner. “All the appendicitis cases we treat now present complications,” he said. “They demand more resources and antibiotics – supplies we don’t have.”
Deaths in Cuba have escalated as years of increasing restrictions take effect. The Cuban Ministry of Public Health reported that survival rates for childhood cancer dropped from 85 percent to 65 percent amid the oil blockade. Infant mortality climbed from four per 1,000 live births in 2017 to 9.9 in 2025. Maternal mortality rose to 44.1 deaths per 100,000 live births by the end of 2025. Obstetrician-gynecologist Lilian Delgado noted a sharp rise in premature births and severe morbidity among pregnant women.
More than 100,000 Cubans are currently on waiting lists for elective or reconstructive surgeries, including 5,152 cancer patients and approximately 12,000 children. Delgado said some of her patients have been languishing on such lists for months. “Our surgical services are severely hampered by a lack of supplies,” she explained. “We have more women suffering from serious complications, and our operating rooms have become tied up with emergency cases, making it impossible to perform elective surgeries.”
The William Soler Pediatric Hospital alone used to perform 10,000 surgeries annually, but surgical activity came to a near-standstill during the COVID-19 pandemic, falling to barely 1,000. Currently, the hospital performs only one or two elective surgeries per day. “At this pace, we will have performed around 700 operations by the end of the year,” said Fernandez.
Erenia Carrillo, 57, suffers from kidney failure and undergoes dialysis. She has noticed her quality of care decline. “The hospital used to supply all kinds of medications,” Carrillo said. “Now, with the tightening of the embargo, even the staff coming to care for us arrive late because they have no transport to get here.” Out of 395 medicines produced domestically in Cuba, 300 were out of stock due to the inability to secure raw materials.
A pharmacy clerk in Havana said that since the oil blockade began, shipments come months apart. The last time her pharmacy was stocked was on June 16; before that, February 23. She estimated the boxes only covered 30 percent of her community's needs. The clerk herself suffers from hypertension and has no choice but to turn to the black market to meet her needs.
Community doctor Roxana Martinez has had to face patients knowing she had no medication to give them. “There are practically no medicines in the pharmacy,” Martinez said. She has been forced to recommend herbal infusions and natural medicine instead. “Natural medicine has been used forever, but it is becoming more important now because sometimes it is the only option available,” said Martinez.
Cuba's population has shrunk by more than 10 percent since 2020. While doctors can earn thousands of dollars per month abroad, Martinez's salary is only about $20 a month. Still, she remains devoted to her patients. “The workload is overwhelming, but I take it on because the patients need me,” she said.
Only on Wednesday did Cuba loosen restrictions to allow the creation of private pharmacies, as part of economic reforms. But the strain of the oil blockade continues to make jobs like hers even more difficult. Cuba's state-run healthcare system boasts 10,000 neighborhood clinics, 149 hospitals, and 451 polyclinics, but struggles to keep up with the needs of its 9.4 million inhabitants.
Source: www.aljazeera.com