With the US blockade cutting off oil, the island’s healthcare has been wrecked, access to clean water lost and babies put at risk
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our months into Cuba’s deepening energy crisis, the consequences are no longer abstract: they are visible in the rhythm of daily life. Streets fall silent before night has fully set in. Hospitals scale back operations. Small businesses close due to a lack of supplies. At dawn, exhaustion shows on people’s faces after long nights without electricity.
But the most serious toll is measured not in inconvenience but in health.
Tens of thousands of surgeries have been postponed nationwide. Pregnant women face irregular access to prenatal care. Newborns dependent on incubators or ventilators are at risk when power fails. Patients undergoing dialysis, cancer treatment or managing chronic illnesses depend on electricity not as a convenience but as a lifeline.
