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Leprosy in Cuba reached 124 new cases in 2025, more than in Mexico, a country with twelve times as many people. Cubanos por el Mundo compared World Health Organization (WHO) data for 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean: relative to its population, Cuba ranks sixth.
The other worrying figure is in the 2025 Health Statistics Yearbook, which Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) released on October 22: diagnoses in children under 15 rose from one in 2024 to five in 2025.
Cuba compared with Latin America: more cases than Mexico
| Country | New cases 2025 | Cases per 100,000 people |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 22,901 | 10.8 |
| Paraguay | 272 | 3.9 |
| Suriname | 14 | 2.2 |
| Guyana | 18 | 2.2 |
| Venezuela | 337 | 1.2 |
| Cuba | 124 | 1.1 |
| Dominican Republic | 63 | 0.5 |
| Colombia | 237 | 0.4 |
| Argentina | 134 | 0.3 |
| Mexico | 88 | 0.07 |
Mexico, with about 132 million people, reported 88 cases in 2025. Cuba, with fewer than 11 million, reported 124. Per 100,000 people, Cuba’s rate is about 17 times Mexico’s and double that of the Dominican Republic, a country with a similar population.
Only Brazil, Paraguay, Suriname and Guyana have clearly higher rates. Venezuela is at a level similar to Cuba’s. Brazil, with almost 23,000 cases, accounts for the vast majority of diagnoses in the region.
Five times more children with leprosy in Cuba
The yearbook records five cases in children under 15 in 2025, compared with one in 2024 and two in 2023, according to the previous edition. For the WHO, child cases reflect recent transmission: the disease takes years to show symptoms, so a sick child means the infection is still circulating nearby.
All five children had the multibacillary form, which carries the highest bacterial load and is the most contagious. Nationwide, 113 of the 124 cases (91%) were of that form. Of the patients, 76 were men and 48 women.
Where the cases are concentrated
Half of the diagnoses were in Cuba’s two easternmost provinces, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. The sharpest jump was in Guantánamo, which went from 7 cases in 2024 to 22 in 2025, more than triple. Santiago de Cuba recorded 40, eight more than the year before.
| Territory | Cases 2024 | Cases 2025 | Rate 2025 (per 100,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isla de la Juventud | 2 | 4 | 5.5 |
| Guantánamo | 7 | 22 | 4.8 |
| Santiago de Cuba | 32 | 40 | 4.2 |
| National total | 151 | 124 | 1.3 |
Isla de la Juventud had the highest rate in the country with only four diagnoses, because of its small population. Havana reported nine cases, while Villa Clara and Cienfuegos recorded none.
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Late diagnosis, fewer dermatologists and an error in the yearbook
The national total of leprosy in Cuba fell from 2024, when 151 cases were diagnosed, although it was nearly the same as in 2023, with 123. At the end of 2025, 154 people were registered with the disease, 43 of them in Santiago de Cuba. That is fewer than 0.2 patients per 10,000 people: since 1993, Cuba has been below the threshold the WHO uses to consider leprosy eliminated as a public health problem. Eliminated does not mean eradicated.
The yearbook does not say whether the 2025 drop reflects fewer infections or less detection. A study published in MEDISAN in January 2026 reviewed 707 cases in Santiago de Cuba between 2001 and 2022: 21.2% were diagnosed late and 21.5% already had some degree of disability. Its authors stress that active case finding and early treatment are the pillars for controlling the disease.
That case finding depends on dermatologists, and there are fewer of them. According to the yearbooks, the number of doctors working in dermatology fell from 635 in 2024 to 599 in 2025, in a health system already dealing with dengue outbreaks and garbage piling up in the streets.
The official figures themselves have flaws. In one of its tables, the 2025 yearbook assigns to 2024 the same 123 cases recorded in 2023, while another table in the same document and the previous edition show 151. Cubanos por el Mundo has also reported on patients waiting weeks for basic tests in Cuban hospitals.
What Cuba’s health ministry says about leprosy symptoms
Dr. Raisa Rumbaut Castillo, head of MINSAP’s National Leprosy Program, confirmed on Tuesday, October 27, in an interview on Canal Caribe’s Buenos Días program, that cases are diagnosed in Cuba every year.
She listed three signs that call for a doctor’s visit: light or reddish patches on the skin with loss of sensation, tingling or numbness, and loss of strength in the hands and feet. She also warned that these symptoms can be caused by other illnesses.
She explained that leprosy is not easily transmitted. Transmission usually requires close, prolonged contact with an untreated patient. The disease is curable: treatment combines rifampicin, dapsone and clofazimine, is free in the health system, and the medicines used in Cuba are donated through the WHO, according to elTOQUE. The WHO provides these drugs at no cost thanks to a donation from the pharmaceutical company Novartis in place since 2000 and renewed through 2030. From the first doses, the ability to spread the disease drops sharply.
Detecting it early is what prevents the nerve damage that causes disability. Anyone with any of these signs should see a doctor as soon as possible.
Have you lived with leprosy in Cuba?
If you or someone in your family was diagnosed with leprosy in Cuba, we want to hear your story: what the care was like, whether medicines were available and how people around you reacted. Write to us through Cubanos por el Mundo’s social media. If you ask, we will protect your identity.
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