Haitian Cholera Spreads to Havana

A public notification sign warning about cholera in Havana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haitian Cholera  Spreads to Havana

Looking for an alternative news source, I searched the al-Jazeera English website for news about epidemic disease. Finding an article about the spread of cholera in Cuba made me think about the comparative epidemics the two countries face; theirs, a cholera epidemic that, combined with the affliction of people across neighboring Haiti, marks as one of the worst in decades; ours, a particularly virulent and dangerous strain of influenza, which has killed 20 children as of mid-January. This story, published today under the original title Cuba Acknowledges Cholera Outbreak in Havana, can be accessed at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/01/201311623818820618.html

After several weeks of news stories bombarding America with details on the influenza outbreak, I thought that a look back at the Caribbean cholera epidemic would be a welcome change of pace. As our class may remember, we learned about the spread of cholera to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, before which the disease had not been seen in the country for several decades. It is suspected that Nepalese aid workers brought cholera with them, and the infection spread rapidly in the impoverished island country due to a lack of proper housing and adequate infrastructure. Around the same time, we learned from another blog post that the disease had spread to eastern Cuba, likely by Haitian refugees traveling across the small passage that separates Cuba and Hispaniola. Now we have news of the spread of cholera to Havana, the Cuban capital and the largest city on the island. I consider this to be a likely continuation of the Haitian epidemic that began in the winter of 2010.

According to the article, the Cuban ministry of public health has acknowledged that since the start of the outbreak on January 6th, 51 people have so far been struck with cholera in Haiti, centered around the Cerro neighborhood. While the government has stated that nobody has died yet from the outbreak, there is at least one suspected case of a man who began vomiting severely in December of 2012, and died two weeks later on January 2nd. Rain, which contributes to the spread of the disease, is common in January, but so far the weather has been drier than normal. The last outbreak, which occurred in August of 2012 and resulted in three deaths, was limited to the province of Granma, far to the east of Havana. There is some speculation that Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in the destruction of over 200,000 homes in Cuba before hitting the United States, caused floods that may have contributed to the outbreak. American diplomats in Cuba have urged visitors to take appropriate sanitation measures, and European ambassadors are likely to do the same when more information is made public. 

I believe this epidemic can only get worse from here. While this flu season in America has been particularly deadly, there is a predictable break during the summer; there will be no such respite for the Caribbean. Haiti alone has seen 7,200 people die as a result of cholera, a death toll 360 times higher than the current American fatalities from influenza. With the disease now in Havana (home to over two million people), it is almost certain that the death toll will climb significantly, even with Cuba's medical services that are so highly regarded in Latin America. It is even possible that, with the renewing of the hurricane season in a few months and a number of overseas tourists that dwarf any comparable Haitian tourism, the epidemic will spread to other parts of the Caribbean or even outside the Americas. The United States is not likely to be hit, as advanced medical care combined with a thorough system of sewage treatment will likely halt any epidemic before it can become a serious problem in America.

We will, however, always have next year's flu season to guard against.