Cuba cholera cases now stand at 170 confirmed and eight more suspected

Posted on Monday, 07.16.12

Cuba cholera cases now stand at 170 confirmed and eight more suspected

The total number of confirmed cholera cases in Cuba now stands at 170
while eight more cases are suspected.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

The numbers on Cuba's cholera outbreak continued to grow over the
weekend, with officials reporting 12 new confirmed cases, bringing the
total to 170, and eight new suspected cases in the southeastern province
of Granma.

Cuba's Public Health Ministry, in a statement published in the official
news media on Saturday morning, declared that the outbreak was
"decreasing" with 158 confirmed cases and three deaths confirmed.

But the numbers provided by lead Granma province epidemiologist Ana
Maria Batista during her appearance Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings
on provincial television showed increases in all the categories.

"The numbers show it is growing," said Santiago Marquez, a physician in
the Granma city of Manzanillo who has watched Batista's nightly reports
for more than a week and provided the details to independent journalists
in Cuba and El Nuevo Herald.

Batista reported 158 confirmed cholera cases in the province on Friday,
163 on Saturday — though her town-by-town breakdown added up to 164 —
and six additional cases on Sunday for a total of 170, Marquez said.

She noted on Sunday that eight new cases of suspected cholera had been
reported, and that 27 people were hospitalized on Saturday alone with
diarrhea and vomiting, the key symptoms of the disease, according to the
physician.

More general cases of diarrhea and vomiting, which spike every summer
with the rains and heat, rose from 5,680 in her Saturday report to 6,002
in her Sunday appearance, Marquez reported. About 97 percent of those
already have recovered, she added.

The number of Granma's 13 municipalities where cholera has been reported
rose from seven to nine, Batista noted.

Appearing with Batista on provincial television Sunday, Deputy Director
of Provincial Transportation José Mendoza González again advised
residents to put off unnecessary travel in order to avoid spreading the
disease.

Cuban officials have repeatedly assured since early July that the
cholera outbreak was under control and that the rising number of
confirmed cases was because laboratories need a week or more to confirm
a diagnosis of cholera.

Dissidents and independent journalists have alleged that the cholera
death toll stands at five to 15 but that the government has confirmed
only three to avoid scaring tourists, one of the country's main sources
of hard currency. They have also reported cholera cases in Havana,
Santiago de Cuba and other parts of the island.

The Health Ministry announcement published Saturday confirmed a few
cases had been reported outside of Granma, but noted that all were
people who had been in the province. It was not clear if the 158 cases
it reported referred to all the island, or Granma province alone.
Batista has made it clear her numbers are for the province only.

The ministry announcement was only the national government's second
comment on the epidemic since July 3, when it confirmed three deaths and
53 cases caused by the bacteria Vibrio Cholerae but did not use the word
cholera. Saturday's statement did use the word.

Cuba's public health system, once one of the best in the hemisphere and
still considered capable of dealing with emergencies, has been battered
since the collapse of the Soviet Union's massive subsidies until the
early 1990s.

Hundreds of Cuban doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are
working in Haiti, where an outbreak of cholera has killed more than
7,000 people since 2010.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/16/2898316/cuba-cholera-cases-now-stand.html