Cuba keeps epidemiological surveillance active. health minister asserts

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 9 (ACN) Cuba maintains active clinical-epidemiological and microbiological surveillance at all levels of care of the National Health System, including border transit, assured Jose Angel Portal Miranda, Cuban minister of public health on X.

With his message, the minister shared an article published on the website of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) with the sharing of respiratory infections in the country during 2023.

Last year, some 2,817,000 consultations associated with Acute Respiratory Infections were carried out, which means 146,275 fewer medical attention for that cause than in 2022, with a decreasing behavior in the last nine weeks of the year just concluded, Portal Miranda assured.

He pointed out that there was a 22.6 % (%) decrease in the number of patients admitted to the units for the treatment of serious cases.

The Minister of Health called to remain alert to the declarations of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), regarding the increase in the world of respiratory diseases caused by COVID-19.

He specified that for the moment in the national territory, influenza and other viruses have not experienced a significant increase.

The epidemiological and microbiological surveillance studies that are systematically carried out in our laboratories show that at the moment the circulation of Respiratory Syncytial, Influenza A, Rhinovirus and Parainfluenza viruses is outstanding, he added.

In the particular case of COVID-19, Portal Miranda added that in the last two months of 2023 and the days elapsed in 2024, the presence of three subvariants of Omicron have been identified: XBB 1.5, XBB.1.9 and XBB.1.16, classified by the WHO as being of interest or under surveillance.

Regarding the behavior of COVID-19 in 2023, Cuban health head stated that no deaths were regretted and 142,380 fewer cases were diagnosed than in 2022 after the studies carried out on at-risk populations and serious patients, in more than 121,800 studies carried out, only 2.5% were confirmed.

MINSAP has reiterated the need to comply with health protection measures, especially in vulnerable groups during these winter months, which coincide with the seasonal period of Acute Respiratory Infections.

He emphasized that the population should be attentive to the official information issued on the subject, and check the information circulating on social networks.

Portal Miranda insisted on the use of masks in places with a high concentration of people; to go to the doctor when respiratory symptoms appear, and to keep the Anti COVID-19 vaccination schedule up to date.

As part of our health protocols, vaccination has continued to be carried out, with special emphasis on children up to two years of age, pregnant women and groups of people identified as vulnerable, to whom the corresponding reactivation is applied, he stressed.

The minister insisted that responsibility and discipline continue to be essential to protect life.