Dr. Roberto Fernández Montoya

Dr. Roberto Fernández Montoya is a senior specialist in Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine at the Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kourí (IPK) in Havana — Cuba's foremost institution for the study and clinical management of infectious and tropical diseases, and one of the leading tropical medicine centres in the Western Hemisphere. Over a career of 25 years, Dr. Fernández Montoya has worked at the intersection of patient care, epidemiological fieldwork, and translational research, responding to outbreaks of dengue, cholera, and leptospirosis within Cuba and providing expert consultation during regional health emergencies across the Caribbean and Latin America.

His clinical focus encompasses the diagnosis and long-term management of HIV/AIDS — a field in which Cuba has achieved internationally recognised outcomes through its comprehensive national programme — as well as a broad portfolio of tropical and vector-borne diseases. He leads the IPK's HIV outpatient clinic, overseeing antiretroviral therapy protocols, opportunistic infection management, and the monitoring of virological and immunological response in a cohort of several hundred patients.

Dr. Fernández Montoya speaks Spanish, English, and French, having collaborated with Francophone African health ministries on tuberculosis control projects. His work at IPK combines direct patient care with an active research programme, and he is frequently invited as a scientific advisor to WHO and PAHO technical consultations on infectious disease surveillance in the Caribbean region.

Dr. Fernández Montoya completed his MD at the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de La Habana, graduating with distinction before undertaking a residency in Internal Medicine. He subsequently pursued advanced specialisation in Infectious Disease at the Instituto Pedro Kourí, where rigorous training in both clinical parasitology and medical virology is a defining feature of the programme.

His doctoral research, conducted at IPK and supported by international collaboration with the Institut Pasteur network, examined the molecular epidemiology of dengue virus serotypes circulating in the Caribbean basin and their correlation with clinical severity. The thesis earned him a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de La Habana. Additional training has included field epidemiology courses endorsed by PAHO, workshops in antiretroviral pharmacology, and a fellowship attachment at a tropical medicine unit in France, where he developed his French-language clinical capabilities.

Dr. Fernández Montoya's clinical expertise spans the full range of tropical and infectious diseases encountered in the Cuban and broader Caribbean context. In HIV medicine, he manages treatment-naive and treatment-experienced patients, including those with multidrug-resistant virus, and supervises the clinical protocols for prophylaxis and treatment of opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, and cryptococcal meningitis.

In tropical medicine, he is experienced in the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of dengue (including severe dengue with haemorrhagic features), leptospirosis, malaria imported from sub-Saharan Africa, leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease. He supervises the IPK's parasitology and serology diagnostic laboratory and has extensive experience with lumbar puncture and cerebrospinal fluid analysis for the workup of neuroinfectious disease. As part of Cuba's national tuberculosis programme, he participates in the management of drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant TB cases, collaborating with respiratory medicine colleagues. His outbreak investigation role has taken him to the field on multiple occasions to characterise and contain infectious disease clusters.

Dr. Fernández Montoya has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including the Revista Cubana de Medicina Tropical, the Revista Cubana de Higiene y Epidemiología, and international journals such as PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. His publications cover dengue epidemiology, leptospirosis clinical outcomes, HIV treatment efficacy within the Cuban national programme, and the use of rapid diagnostic tests for tropical diseases in low-resource settings. He has contributed to PAHO technical working group reports on dengue prevention and has served as a guest editor for a special issue on Caribbean infectious diseases. He is currently leading a multi-year cohort study on long-term immunological outcomes in HIV-positive patients initiated on antiretroviral therapy in Cuba.

The Instituto Pedro Kourí has long received referrals from across Latin America and the Caribbean for diagnosis and management of complex tropical infectious diseases. The institution has laboratory capabilities for advanced serological and molecular diagnostics that are not always available in neighbouring countries, and international patients are routinely accepted for second-opinion consultation and definitive diagnostic workup.

Dr. Fernández Montoya is available to international patients for in-person consultation at IPK and can participate in video consultations for case review and pre-visit discussion. He consults in Spanish, English, and French. International visitors seeking evaluation of unexplained febrile illness, confirmation of tropical disease diagnosis, or specialist HIV management review will find the IPK's international services unit a well-organised point of contact for appointments and logistical support.

Dr. Fernández Montoya has received the Premio Nacional de Ciencias de la Salud, awarded by the Cuban Academy of Sciences, in recognition of his research on dengue molecular epidemiology. He has been commended by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health for his contributions to national HIV programme outcomes and for his field epidemiology work during dengue and leptospirosis outbreaks. The Pan American Health Organization has acknowledged his participation as a technical advisor in regional infectious disease surveillance initiatives. He holds honorary membership of the Sociedad Venezolana de Infectología in recognition of cross-border collaboration.