Cuban Public Health System and "Quality" / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

“There is no greater honor than to be the guardian of public health.” Fidel Castro

Cuba boasts of its public health system, and its hospitals are overflowing with cases of viral dengue fever. This outbreak is caused by this country’s poor performance in supplying water to homes, especially in the capital province.

The township Arroyo Naranjo was one of the most affected by dengue in 2012, after which the measure was taken to suspend the water supply every other day (one day on, one day off).

According to the official version, the supply of water to this area was every four days, because four motors were broken out of six total and the measure taken would prevent the remaining two working motors from breaking down because of overload.

More than seven months passed, and the problem with the water supply continued, the desperate citizens began to store water in pots, tanks, etc.  With passing days, this accumulated water prepared the conditions for the Dengue-carrying mosquito larvae, creating a considerable hatchery in each home.

The sprayings and the groups fighting the mosquitoes were diminishing with each passing month, the visits to the homes and the sprayings were increasingly rare.  Then the cases of dengue began on a grand scale.

The “Covadonga” hospital located in the capital township “Cerro” like the “Julio Trigo” and the “Enrique Cabrera” (National Hospital) were overrun with cases of dengue, but none was  hemorrhagic.

Then!  The government decided to announce that the water would be on every other day for this township, like it had before.  It all happened because the government had no interest in fixing the motors so that the citizens could have safe water.

Only Cuban problems are solved after there is a big, harmful event among the people.  The government’s system has shown this throughout these 53 years of “REVOLUTION.”

Translated by mlk.

September 10 2012