SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The Oropouche and dengue viruses continue to spread in Cuba amid a crisis in the health system and community services, and cases have been confirmed at the Eduardo Bernabé Ordaz Psychiatric Hospital, known as Corncob.
Wiliam Espinosa García, head of the Service of that psychiatric institution, stated this Thursday to Marti News that there were people with Oropouche Fever, after being asked about alleged cases of Covid, Oropouche and dengue, following rumors circulating on social media about the presence of these three diseases in the hospital.
“There is a respiratory ward here where patients who are under respiratory surveillance go, but there is no COVID in the hospital,” he said.
The director, however, did not specify figures or explain how long respiratory illnesses had been present in the hospital.
“There is Oropouche all over Cuba, but if you want more information you have to come to the hospital so you can feel things. Don’t be carried away by what people say,” he said.
Mercedes Hernández, a former nurse at the center, revealed to Marti News that “there have been no deaths.”
“There have been several cases, quite a few, of the new virus, Oropouche and dengue. I spoke to two or three people. The hospital has not been closed because there is no reason for that,” he said.
“The emergency room is still working. Those who need to be admitted are admitted and those who don’t are sent home. The therapies are working. No ward has been closed,” he said.
So far, the hospital authorities have not made any official statement on the incident.
Oropouche increases in Cuba
The national director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), Francisco Durán, Indian that the virus of Oropouche The outbreak began in Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos (in May), but quickly spread to Matanzas, Mayabeque, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, Holguín, Guantánamo, Artemisa, Camagüey and Granma, and later to Pinar del Río. Although no cases have been reported in Havana, reports on social media claim that there are multiple cases.
According to the country’s health authorities, the virus Oropouche, transmitted primarily by mosquitoes, causes symptoms such as fever, headache, myalgia (muscle aches), and in some cases, can lead to more severe complications.
Several Cubans interviewed by CubaNet They said they have had to go through the disease without access to medication, due to the serious health crisis in the country.
Amidst a dire shortage of medicines and resources in Cuban hospitals, sick people must access medicines on the black market where prices are too high.
“They say that a blister pack of pills costs 500 pesos, it costs 600 pesos and I can’t do anything, what can I cure myself with?” said a Cuban.
Many went through their illness without medical assistance and put up with the symptoms: “Well, I had diarrhea, a bad headache and I was sick for four to five days, the only thing that left me a little weak,” said one woman.
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