Medical Students Evicted from Dorms in Matanzas, Cuba
to house sick children
The province is reorganizing its services to monitor the sick, while residents avoid going to emergency rooms due to the poor conditions of hospitals. At least three other provinces, including Havana, are taking similar measures.
HAVANA TIMES – The dormitories of the University of Medical Sciences of Matanzas have been vacated and converted into an improvised hospital to confront the epidemiological crisis in the province. As 14ymedio confirmed during a visit to the site, near the Faustino Pérez Hospital, students were sent home to make way for pediatric wards. On Thursday, some were still seen nearby with bags and backpacks. As the students left, sick children who could not be treated at the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Provincial Pediatric Hospital—already at full capacity—were transported by buses to the university for admission.
On social media, several people referred to the “abrupt expulsion” of the university students. “They just kicked out the students from the University of Medical Sciences, which is next to the Faustino Perez Hospital, to expand both the pediatric and the Faustino Perez hospitals because they’re overwhelmed,” a resident of Matanzas commented under a Facebook post about the daily epidemiological update by Dr. Francisco Durán.
Communicator Niover Licea also published a complaint about the students. “They told us to evacuate without prior notice. It’s a lack of respect. There’s no food for those who stay, and they want to fix all at once what they failed to prevent from the start. This crisis will end when we’re all sick,” Licea quoted a student as saying. He added that university authorities urged students to remain discreet and warned them about possible reprisals if they shared information about the health situation.
The provincial newspaper Girón reported Wednesday afternoon that the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Pediatric Hospital was at 100% capacity. “We are facing a complex epidemiological situation where arboviruses coexist with other viral infections, such as rotavirus, which causes diarrheal diseases and increases the demand for medical care,” explained the hospital’s director, Anaelis Santana Alvarez.
Currently, patient distribution and human resources are being reinforced—possibly as part of the deployment of additional health personnel announced by the authorities on Monday. Dr. Santana stated that the hospital’s full occupancy was largely due to protocols requiring the mandatory hospitalization of children under ten with fever and suspected arbovirus infection “regardless of whether they have complications.”
The reinforcement plan includes specialists and emergency medicine residents, as well as medical students assisting in the wards. Hospitals in Cárdenas and Colón have been mobilized to treat children over five “without warning signs,” aiming to decentralize care and ease the burden. Eliseo Noel Caamaño will therefore handle patients with warning signs, infants under one year old, and the most severe cases—which, according to Santana, have not yet been reported.
“There have been no shortages of resources to treat children, and the province has no serious or critical arbovirus cases,” she said, firmly denying circulating rumors about cholera. “The current diarrheal cases are caused by seasonal rotaviruses,” she stated.
Julio Ernesto Hernández, director of Medical Assistance in the province, reported that Matanzas currently has 75 beds for febrile patients and is ready to add 100 more. “What’s most important is for people to see a doctor at the first sign of symptoms,” he said, echoing Dr. Santana’s message. Santana expressed confidence in the system and its surveillance measures, asserting that no deaths have occurred and urging families to remain calm, since “specialists are trained for the task.”
Public mistrust, however, is not directed at doctors. The shortage of medicines and diagnostic reagents to determine what illnesses are circulating has already caused anger among residents, but the main deterrent is the poor hygiene in many hospitals, which discourages people from seeking care.
Nor are households much better off. Hernández urged citizens to “maintain general hygiene at home, eliminate mosquito breeding sites, stay hydrated, and monitor for warning signs.” Yet the lack of running water in countless homes, combined with garbage-filled streets, hardly makes for favorable conditions to stop the spread of these diseases.
“After the capital, the dirtiest city in terms of garbage collection is Matanzas. Stop spending money on building parks and use that budget to clean up the city—that’s quality of life, that’s zero vectors. Please, are there no leaders with vision in the 21st century? The formula is simple: clean city, zero disease,” one user commented on Girón’s social media.
More than a hundred people responded, warning that the epidemiological situation has been serious for weeks and that the response is late and insufficient. “You take your sick children, and they mistreat you and leave you waiting there, not to mention the filthy bathrooms and consulting rooms,” another user complained. Many comments mentioned infections spreading across entire families.
Although Matanzas is currently the epicenter, the rest of the island is also affected—especially Havana, due to its population density. Authorities have continued sanitation efforts, including garbage removal, which has now reached 90,000 cubic meters, up from 35,000 over the weekend. The capital is also facing a viral outbreak, with daily reports of patients suffering from high fevers, intense muscle pain, and rashes.
No official statement has been made, but sources at the Salvador Allende Clinical Surgical Hospital—better known as La Covadonga—told Cibercuba that a Public Health commission visited the center to consider converting it into an arbovirus treatment facility, similar to the pediatric hospital in Matanzas, but for adults. That would require closing departments such as Internal Medicine, Ophthalmology, Urology, Orthopedics, and Geriatrics to admit patients with dengue, chikungunya, and other mosquito-borne diseases. The hospital’s six surgical wards would remain open, but outpatient consultations would be suspended if the plan moves forward.
Ciego de Ávila has also officially announced heightened surveillance for the same reason. Efforts will focus on fumigation and waste cleanup, especially in the hardest-hit areas: Morón, Ciego de Ávila city, and Venezuela. The decision stems from outbreaks centered around two local health clinics—Belkis Sotomayor in the provincial capital and the Sur Polyclinic in Morón.
A similar strategy is being implemented in Bayamo, Granma, where numerous arbovirus cases are circulating. There, authorities have ordered both citizens and businesses—state and private—to do their part in “sanitation efforts and the elimination of leaks, overgrown lots, and dumps,” including granting entry to health personnel conducting door-to-door inspections. Otherwise, they warned, “fines or other punitive measures will be imposed when deemed necessary.”
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.