Cubans turn to community pharmacies amid medicine shortages

Havana, Oct. 12: Every Thursday and Sunday at noon, dozens of people gather outside an apartment building in Havana's Vedado neighborhood. Laura Mendoza comes downstairs, checks their names against a list and hands out medicine they requested through WhatsApp.

Antihistamines, diuretics, eye drops and antibiotics are among the drugs she distributes. She charges nothing.

Projects like Mendoza's, called "Medicine Is Not for Sale," have become a lifeline for Cubans struggling to find increasingly scarce medications as the country's economic crisis deepens, compounded by U.S. energy and financial restrictions imposed since January.

Online sellers, street vendors and WhatsApp and Telegram groups have also stepped in to fill gaps left by state pharmacies, which for decades were the main source of subsidized medicines.

The shortages have become so severe that Cuban authorities issued regulations in July allowing private pharmacies to operate a historic change to the country's state-run health system and part of broader economic reforms.

Until those pharmacies open, projects like Mendoza's provide a lifeline.

"We have five WhatsApp groups in Havana and recently added one in Guanabo," said Mendoza, who estimates that about 100 similar community projects operate in Havana.