Health authorities in Matanzas province lack the necessary supplies to combat the growing spread of diseases such as dengue fever and Oropushtransmitted by mosquitoes.
“We have nothing to disinfect.“We are responsible for supplying resources mainly to hospitals, but also to municipalities, all in the province,” Alfredo Menéndez, economic director of the UEB activities and placement department of the Provincial Health Insurance Company (EPAS), told DIARIO DE CUBA.
“The warehouse base that we have (EPAS) has everything that is supplied to the Ministry of Health, everything that comes in. I can tell you that there are no cleaning agents or fumigation liquids“Said an official consulted by phone for this article.
The Cuban government’s strategy to combat the above-mentioned diseases involves destroying mosquito populations to cut off sources of transmission. Since they do not have the resources to do so, the presence of the vector does not decrease. “We have one severe irritation from mosquitoes and customers in the room“,” Menendez explains. “This is not an easy fight. We’re messing around and everything, but it’s tough. Even we’re suffering from the mosquito situation ourselves. “I don’t work with the types of resources that are needed for fumigation, but when I ask for them from my warehouses, they’re not there.”
Transmissible diseases have even affected EPAS workers. “I have four people in this situation now. There are two patients with dengue and two with Oropush“, Menendez concluded.
DIARIO DE CUBA called the infectious diseases department of the municipal department of hygiene and epidemiology of Matanzas. An epidemiologist named Nelson confines himself to admitting the following: “In the municipality of Matanzas there is high risk of mosquito-borne diseases, not only Oropouche but also dengueThere is great concern about dengue for this time of year, which brings heat and heavy rain.
The director of the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of Cardenas, one of the most populous municipalities in the province, refused to give evidence to the editorial board. However, on condition of strict anonymity, a doctor from the municipality of Calimete confirms some inputs missing: “For now we have medicines to deal with it. The most difficult thing is fumigation, as there is no fuel to carry out local treatment due to the current crisis.”
The doctor assures that the list of necessary medications is very long, since “the treatment is symptomatic” (it is offered according to the symptoms presented by each patient). “Fortunately, no deaths have been reported, and the symptoms do not reach the severity of the patients,” he specifies.
“We started with high fever and headaches,” says Aleida Herrera, a resident of the municipality of Colon who is experiencing the epidemic. dengue together with her husband. “Then came the loss of appetite, the urge to vomit, diarrhea. As a result, we experienced severe weakness, sweating and fatigue. Then a red rash appeared on my skin.”
“It’s been more than a week since my fever went away and I’m still tired. One day my husband passed out,” the 51-year-old concludes. “We decided because my son sent me paracetamol and rehydration salts from the US, but here in my area (outskirts of Colon) almost everyone was infected with it and they didn’t have what they needed to even bring down the fever.”
Ministry of Health of Cuba reported on July 3 that the Oropouche virus has spread to 12 provinces of the country. Matanzas was one of the areas where the spread of the disease was recognized.