Cancer in Cuba: more than 70 deaths a day and shortages of medicine

Figures on cancer in Cuba include more than 70 deaths each day from the disease. The report also says survival among children and young people with cancer fell from 85% to 65%. These are different measurements: one records daily deaths and the other compares survival rates. The available excerpt does not detail the periods used to calculate those figures or define the age groups included.

The reported variation between the two rates is 20 percentage points. Without additional measurement dates, it is impossible to specify the interval in which the decline occurred. The material also does not identify the types of cancer considered or the number of patients used to calculate survival. The daily death count appears alongside that indicator, although no breakdown is provided to connect the two figures directly.

The document also acknowledges shortages in the national pharmaceutical supply: 300 of the 395 medicines produced by the national pharmaceutical industry and included in the basic health formulary are unavailable. The text attributes the shortage to a lack of raw materials and supplies. The excerpt does not identify which medicines are affected or how long they have been unavailable.

Elsewhere, the government attributes losses of more than $134.3 million to the U.S. embargo for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. The figure covers the period from March 2025 through February 2026. It is presented as an estimate of losses assigned to those sectors, not as a count of deaths or unavailable medicines. The excerpt provides no itemized calculation.

The report places these figures less than two weeks before the United Nations General Assembly’s annual vote on the U.S. embargo. The vote is scheduled for October 27 and 28. That timing links discussion of health effects with the international debate over the embargo, but the excerpts do not specify the position Cuba will take or the outcome of the vote.