Cuba cholera outbreak over
Cubans only relying on local media such as the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, miss important information about a cholera outbreak in the eastern region of the island.
Cuba's government declared Tuesday that health workers had eradicated a cholera outbreak that infected 417 people and killed three
"Ten days have passed since the latest confirmed case, whereby the Public Health Ministry says that this outbreak is over," Communist Party daily Granma said of the epidemic, which originated in Manzanillo, a city of 130,500 located some 560 miles east of Havana.
More from GlobalPost: Cuba mute in the time of cholera
Cuba announced in early July that the water-borne illness had returned to the eastern part of the island for the first time in more than a century, reported CNN.
A notice from the Public Health Ministry blamed the outbreak on this year's heavy rains and high temperatures, which raise the risk of diarrheic diseases, according to the Associated Press. It also said it originated in Manzanillo's contaminated water systems, and that other cases elsewhere in Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Havana were discovered in people who had previously traveled to the plagued city.
After the government learned of the health emergency, it decided to suspend traditional summer carnivals in Manzanillo and Bayamo as a precaution, reported EFE. Venezuela also sent 20 military doctors to Cuba to provide support.
President Raul Castro said on July 24 that he denounced "propagandistic campaigns" regarding the cholera cases designed to "discredit" his country's health care system and assured that the outbreak was under control.
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