Cuba

CUBA

Cuba says cholera outbreak over

 

Similar stories:

  • Cuba stays silent about deadly cholera outbreak

  • Cholera cases down but disease still deadly in Haiti

  • Madrid politician calls for inquiry into accident that killed Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá

  • U.S. urges freedom for Granma journalist

  • Correction: New Virus story

jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

Cuba’s Public Health Ministry has announced that an outbreak of cholera has ended and put the final tally at three deaths and 417 cases — an inexplicably higher number of confirmed cases than its last official totals.

A ministry statement in the Granma newspaper reported that the overwhelming majority of the cases were in the city of Manzanillo in eastern Granma province. It said no new cases had been reported in more than 10 days, so the outbreak was being declared over.

The three deaths were the same reported in the national government’s only previous comments on Cuba’s first outbreak of the deadly disease in decades, on July 3 and July 13.

But the 417 confirmed cases was far higher than the 158 cases the national government reported on July 13 and the 263 cases reported by Granma provincial health officials only 15 days ago on Aug. 13, the last of their daily reports on provincial television.

The gap may be caused by the number of cholera cases confirmed outside Granma province. The ministry’s announcement Monday said cholera cases were reported in Havana, Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba, all among people who had been in Manzanillo. It gave no numbers for the cases outside Manzanillo, but previous government announcements had indicated that few such cases had been confirmed.

The ministry blamed the outbreak on the heavy rains that lashed Granma in mid-June, flooding outdoor toilets and contaminating water wells. The bacteria apparently was brought to the area by Cuban medical personnel working in Haiti, where a cholera epidemic has killed more than 7,400 people.

Granma published the ministry announcement without any additional details or comments.

Read more Cuba stories from the Miami Herald

Miami Herald

Join the
Discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

The Miami Herald uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here.

Have a news tip? You can send it anonymously. Click here to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Hide Comments

This affects comments on all stories.

Cancel OK

  • Videos

  • Quick Job Search

Enter Keyword(s) Enter City Select a State Select a Category