Cuba’s debilitated healthcare system has been pushed to the brink of collapse by the US blockading the country’s oil supply, a Cuban official said on Friday.
The country’s medical system was already perpetually crisis-stricken along with the island’s economy, with lack of supplies, staff and medicine long being the norm, but the turmoil has reached a new extreme in recent weeks. Ambulances are struggling to find fuel to respond to emergencies. Persistent outages have plagued deteriorated hospitals. Flights bringing vital supplies have been suspended, as the Cuban government said it is unable to refuel airplanes in its airports.
Experts and some leaders of other countries have warned that the island could be on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.
Photo: AP
US sanctions are no longer just crippling the island’s economy, they are threatening “basic human safety,” Cuban Minister of Public Health Jose Angel Portal Miranda said.
“You cannot damage a state’s economy without affecting its inhabitants,” Portal said. “This situation could put lives at risk.”
Five million people in Cuba living with chronic illnesses would see their medications or treatments affected, he said, adding that this included 16,000 cancer patients requiring radiotherapy and another 12,400 undergoing chemotherapy.
Cardiovascular care, orthopedics, oncology and treatment for critically ill people who require electrical backup are among the most impacted areas, he said.
Kidney disease treatments and emergency ambulance services have also been added to the list of impacted services.
Cuba’s energy crisis entered new extremes last month when US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.
Cubans — who the US said it seeks to defend — are the ones feeling the harsh ripple effects of the fuel blockade as hardship mounts every day. Buses have slashed routes, gas has been put under strict rationing and is only being sold in foreign currency, and endemic blackouts have reached a new extreme.
Cuba’s healthcare system has been in crisis in recent years. Thousands of doctors have emigrated from the country and hospitals have rapidly deteriorated, while medicine shortages have forced many to buy them on the black market.
Such problems are expected to worsen in the coming weeks, Portal said.
Solar panels have been installed in clinics while authorities prioritize care to children and the elderly, he said.
However, they have placed restrictions on some more energy-reliant technologies such as CT scans and laboratory tests, so doctors would have to rely on more basic methods to treat patients, effectively cutting many off from high levels of care, he added.
“We are facing an energy siege with direct implications for the lives of Cubans, for the lives of Cuban families,” Portal said.
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