A cholera outbreak in the Cuban capital of Havana may be related to flooding that occurred in eastern Cuba as a result of Hurricane Sandy in late October, according to a recent story from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an international not-for-profit group that focuses on issues in crisis-racked regions.?
A doctor who requested anonymity said 47 cases have been identified in Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a tourist area in the city center, and that 33 of the cases originated in the hurricane-hit areas.?
Authorities have responded to the outbreak by setting up special hospital wards, cleaning up streets and buildings in parts of Habana Vieja, and distributing medications to prevent dehydration, the story said.?
Meanwhile, in Holguin province in eastern Cuba, officials said Vladimir Lenis Hospital is admitting three to five new cholera patients daily.This is one of those cases where the news is the absence of news. The IWPR report is a rehash of posts like this one on Hablemos Press, and now it's recycled again. But no one seems to be taking an interest in confirming a story going back to last summer?certainly not the official Cuban media, and not WHO, and even the Cuban exile media aren't talking much about it. Nor are the media of other Caribbean countries showing any interest.?
But there are certainly a lot of foreign correspondents in Cuba, and you'd expect at least one or two would be willing to risk being kicked out of the country if they could get something solid on the cholera story. Apparently not.
Source: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2012/12/cidrap-news-scan-for-december-27.html
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