Cuba Conceals Cholera Outbreak

Media silence in the Caribbean is not necessarily good for Cuba, the island known in and around the world for its health care, tourism, and socialist economy. One should also recall the campaign Cuba had in the 1960s to produce 10 million tons of sugar in which it fell millions of tons short without fully informing its citizens. [1] The culprit today is the thoroughly unpleasant and sometimes fatal disease of cholera. While only two deaths have occurred in recent weeks in Cuba out of the 500 cases that have been reported so far since the current outbreak, [2] the actual figure is not known at the present. [3] In order to keep local panic to a minimum, the island has tried to prevent reports from being leaked. Travel to Cuba attracts hundreds of thousands of European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists every year, generating $2.5 billion USD in 2012. [4] Tourist officials on the island have taken on the audacious task of trying to keep news of the disease from circulating. Although none of these countries have acted to prevent their citizens from traveling to Cuba, some officials from affected countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, have issued advisories recommending that foreign visitors take additional precautions when it comes to purchases of consumed food and water. [5] The shaky U.S. and Cuban relations have also caused the United States to not make any official statements about the outbreak. No foreign tourists have, as of yet, contracted cholera in Cuba, but it would only take one reported case to spark widespread concern and blemish Cuba’s highly regarded tourist reputation. Cuba is sensitive to the fact that cholera outbreaks cause additional stigma to underdeveloped countries, resulting in a heightened reputation for poverty and vulnerability.

There is no doubt that the Cuban Ministry of Public Health issues a wealth of practicable information on cholera, including detailed books and training procedures. [6] However, the Ministry has unyieldingly refused to distribute much of this material to the island’s residents, prompting a significant amount of scrutiny from the outside world, which is increasingly aware of this medical problem. Cholera is easily treatable when diagnosed, with a low mortality rate, if the disease is promptly treated. Up to 80 percent of cholera cases are treatable simply through the use of rehydration salts, while less than one percent of all cases are fatal. [7]

Having long dealt with cholera related issues, Cuba routinely has sent medical aid workers, as well as instructors, to teach professional medicine on a worldwide basis during natural disasters, in other countries ranging from earthquakes to hurricanes relief missions. In 2010, the Castro administration sent doctors and major supply shipments to Haiti to help deal with their ongoing cholera epidemic. [8] In 2011, Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health realized that aid workers returning from Haiti might have carried with them to the island the possibility of a future cholera outbreak. [9] While Havana officials were fully aware of the potential danger to the health of the local population, low level officials were not sharing information with members of the community and failed to take necessary precautions.