Hundreds of Cubans in Sancti Spiritus, the majority of them children, are suffering from a diarrhea outbreak many believe was caused by the contaminated municipal water residents describe as “sludge.” The Castro dictatorship has neglected critical infrastructure on the island for decades, putting its focus instead on building hotels for foreign tourists. This is socialism in action.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
‘The water we get is sludge’: Diarrhea epidemic affects hundreds of children in Sancti Spiritus
More than 200 cases of what the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) categorizes as “gastrointestinal illnesses,” which manifests itself as individuals with diarrhea, have been treated in just one week in Sancti Spíritus.
According to a report from the local state-run newspaper Escambray, during the third week of August, there has been an increase in patients requiring medical attention for this illness in the province. The previous week, 160 children were treated with identical symptoms at the José Martí Pérez Provincial Pediatric Hospital, and health officials assured the problem would subside.
However, in the past seven days, the number of affected individuals has risen to over 200, as per the report, with the majority of them being minors.
Yurien Negrín Calvo, Deputy Director of Hygiene at the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Microbiology (CPHEM) in Sancti Spíritus, reported that the municipalities with the highest number of affected individuals are Sancti Spíritus, Jatibonico, and La Sierpe.
“Due to this pattern, based on the endemic corridor of acute diarrheal diseases, these three municipalities are in an epidemic state, while Yaguajay, Taguasco, and Trinidad are in an alarm zone, and only Cabaiguán and Fomento are considered safe,” acknowledged the official.
Negrín Calvo stated that the reasons for the spread of the disease are “the widespread circulation of rotavirus in the areas with higher incidence, as well as the quality of drinking water and the conditions of storage, conservation, and treatment of this liquid by families.”
Escambray detailed that although the majority of patients recover from the illness without major complications, an unspecified number of cases do present signs of severity.
The authorities, who rarely address the problem until a crisis occurs, claimed to be closely monitoring the water supply in terms of health, which has revealed deficiencies in chlorination, ongoing leaks, inadequate cleaning of valves in the network, and sedimentation issues at the Yayabo plant.
Additionally, the Provincial Aqueduct Directorate reportedly performed drip chlorination of the Rancho Hatuey tanks and introduced a larger tank for this process. Furthermore, they cleaned these tanks, as well as the drainage of the nine-kilometer conduit from the plant to the tanks.
Given the authorities’ inability to provide quality drinking water to the Cuban population, officials informed Escambray that it is important to prioritize hygiene measures, boil drinking water, add bleach to it, and ensure proper food preservation.
However, on the publication’s Facebook page, a commenter by the name of Lizzy Lefont stated: “Apparently, the aqueduct system has serious violations and lacks hygiene in its facilities. Which we already knew, because what comes through the pipes is practically sludge and not potable water. It’s advisable to boil the water. But the quality that arrives is such that at home, you not only have to boil it, but also filter it, separate the solid from the liquid, boil and chlorinate it, and even then, there’s a high chance it remains contaminated.”
Just a few days ago, the MINSAP office in Guantánamo issued an alert about the possibility of cholera outbreaks, following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) warning about the increase in cases of that disease in around twenty countries, including neighboring Haiti.
Aimeé Blanco Chibás, head of the Department of Communicable Diseases at the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Microbiology, indicated that in the face of any symptoms (watery, profuse, whitish, fishy-smelling diarrhea, as well as vomiting and fever) caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, “a rapid response system for focal control is activated, and a quick test is performed, which is now available in the provincial hospital system.”
The same approach is applied to all cases of patients arriving at emergency departments with similar symptoms, especially diarrhea, and dehydration, she added.
This new health crisis arises while Cubans are facing a severe shortage of medications and poor sanitation conditions in cities and towns.
As if that weren’t enough, interruptions in the supply of potable water have become another problem on the already long list of hardships that Cubans endure. This summer, numerous people in cities like Havana have had to receive water via tankers due to the authorities’ inability to ensure that service.
This issue led to at least one public protest in Alamar, in East Havana, where dozens of residents took to the streets to demonstrate after reportedly being without water for 15 days.
Not a problem. Those kids get “free” health care (what there is of it) and, if they survive, free “education.”
If you visit hospitals and clinics in what used to be called third world countries but is now referred to as less developed or developing nations, you find that one of the leading causes of death in the young is diarrhea. Clean water and sanitation in developed nations is what principally increased our life expectancy and lowered child mortality in the 20th century.
There is always a reason why nations are poor, disease ridden and full of death. Some are located in harsh environments with unproductive lands. Some have no natural resources. Some are uneducated. Some have long held cultural traditions that inhibit their advancements. Some have been subject to repeated war and invasion. Some are under a tributary burden. Cuba had none of these in 1958. Communism is the only thing that turned Cuba into a third world nation.