Cuba Gov. Denies More Cholera Deaths
HAVANA TIMES — Cuban authorities on Wednesday denied reports of deaths from of a cholera epidemic in the eastern city of Holguin, though they confirmed the existence of the outbreak in the city, reported the Café Fuerte website.
An official of the Ministry of Public Health in Holguin Province said twenty-two people, including nine children, were diagnosed with cholera, and ten of them are currently hospitalized. However the statement said “There have been no reports of death resulting from this.”
Despite the denial by authorities and their assertion that “the outbreak is controlled,” Café Fuerte asserts that two women have died from the recent outbreak, as that source reported on February 1.
The continued re-emergence of the cholera virus in Cuba is owed, in part, to the continued gag rule that government-controlled Cuban media operates under with regards telling the whole truth. A fully-informed population will be better prepared to protect itself from spreading and contracting the dastardly if not deadly virus. If the Castros directed resources away from programs promoting the release of the five Cuban spies in prison in the US and towards the eradication of cholera in Cuba, lives would be saved.