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Health ministry yearbook records 124 new leprosy cases in 2025, half in Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo
The 2025 Health Statistics Yearbook, released on October 22, 2026 and cited by Periódico Cubano, records 124 new diagnoses against 151 in 2024, with 5 children under 15 among the patients.
The 2025 Health Statistics Yearbook of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), released on October 22, 2026, records 124 new leprosy diagnoses in the country, against 151 in 2024, according to the tally published by Periódico Cubano. Of the 124 cases, 113 were multibacillary, 91.1% of the total, and 11 paucibacillary.
The decline was not uniform: Santiago de Cuba reported 40 patients, eight more than in 2024, and Guantánamo went from 7 to 22. Between them the two provinces accounted for 62 diagnoses. Havana fell from 26 to 9 and Pinar del Río from 21 to 7, while Villa Clara and Cienfuegos reported no new patients in the period.
The Isle of Youth had the country's highest rate, with 5.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Guantánamo, with 4.8, and Santiago de Cuba, with 4.2, against a national average of 1.3.
Authorities identified 5 children under 15 with leprosy, compared with one in 2024, all with the multibacillary form. At the end of 2025 there were 154 registered patients with the disease, 43 of them in Santiago de Cuba, a figure that refers to the existing register and not to new diagnoses.
The World Health Organization describes leprosy as a curable bacterial infection that mainly affects the skin and nerves and whose transmission requires close, prolonged contact with untreated patients. The Pan American Health Organization has warned that the interruption of community screening during the pandemic reduced case detection in Cuba and may have led to late diagnoses.
Sources: Periódico Cubano
Data updated: 2026-11-01T04:15:00.000Z