Vacationers Infected with Cholera in Caibarién, Cuba / Yoel Espinosa Medrano

Caibarién
Caibarién

SANTA CLARA, Cuba , September 3, 2013 , Yoel Espinosa Medrano / www.cubanet.org.- Two men and a woman are hospitalized in the Marta Abreu clinic in the Brisas del Oeste neighborhood, infected with cholera. Gilberto Caballero is one of the names of those infected; he is in serious condition. The outbreak began in the Caibarién Beach, in the north of the province.

Also, a one-year-old girl was admitted to the José Luis Miranda Children’s Hospital in the provincial capital. The patients had dehydration caused by vomiting, diarrhea and of the only weakness.

“Gilberto was very bad, now he’s stable, the three are in isolation under strict medical supervision; in a few days they will return to their homes; here we have all the conditions for treating these patients; we decided to move only the pediatric case,” said one polyclinic worker who requested anonymity.

The infected spent a week on a work-sponsored vacation on the beach in Caibarién. They stayed on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the only 3-story building, located on 3rd and Circunvalación, in the Brisas del Oeste neighborhood in Santa Clara. Right in front of the building the waterline is broken. It was repaired just three months ago but every time drinking water service comes, every five or six days, the precious liquid pours down the street.

Dogs and horses drink water from the opening. There are people who scrub motorcycles and bicycles in the water stream.

This area, west of the provincial capital, is on red alert due to the high prevalence of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry dengue fever.

This Monday, workers were blocked from entering the 1st of May National Industry of Household Production (INPUD), where the infected work, to allow it to be sanitized and rule out any possible outbreak of cholera.

The INPUD cottages, the Mechanical Plant of the Ministry of Agriculture and the hotel of the Interior Ministry, located in the seaside resort of Caibarién, were closed until further notice. The work of clean up is also underway there.

Health and epidemiology officials banned the sale of liquids in private restaurants and food outlets, state and private, in the Brisas del Oeste neighborhood.

Public health and government authorities have not commented. The numbers of people infected with cholera and dengue fever are a secret.

The local media only issue calls to maintain proper health and hygiene measures to prevent disease outbreaks.

About the author
yoel-espinosa.thumbnail Yoel Espinosa Medrano, born Matanzas, October 1973. His parents were peasants and at the end of the 9th grade he began his studies in a school for English teachers, in Santa Clara, from which he graduated in 1992. In 1998 he earned his teaching license in the English Language. In 2005 he began working at the Villa Clara School for Social Workers, from which he was fired for not being politically reliable. In 2006, he took up independent journalism through the Cubanacán Press Agency, where he was later made Managing Editor.

From Cubanet
3 September 2013