The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) of Cuba confirmed this Tuesday the presence of the Oropouche virus in the San Nicolás municipality, the director of Public Health in the territory, Doctor Ramón Aguilar Castillo, said in statements to Radio Mayabeque.
According to the specialist, the virus was detected there through monitoring and surveillance actions for unspecified febrile syndromes.
The cases of the disease were located in the neighborhoods of the northern and southern urban areas, says the official note, which does not mention the number of infected people.
This is the third Cuban province where the presence of Oropouche cases is officially recognized; its presence was previously reported in Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos.
Precisely in this last province, in the town of Aguada de Pasajeros, the activist Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramírez was urgently transferred on Tuesday from the municipal hospital to the General University Teaching Hospital of Cienfuegos Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia Lima.
“I had been like this for five days, with fever, pain in all the joints of the body, abdominal pain, and then the doctor told me that the only thing there was were five serums for people who entered the Aguada Municipal Hospital in serious condition, that they had to send me urgently because there were no more serums in Aguada,” he explained.
“In the Cienfuegos hospital there are two rooms full of cases of dengue and the Oropouche virus, but the curious thing is that they are only leaving hospitalized those who are referred on two occasions, who are in a state of shock, because everyone is being sending them home under surveillance to consume liquids,” he indicated.
Regarding preventive measures to control the epidemiological situation, De la Nuez Ramírez said that they are fumigating only the houses of people who have been detected with the virus and the adjacent homes.
“The entire neighborhood remains the same, here in the community settlement where I live there have been more than 40 cases and five or six houses have been fumigated,” described De la Nuez Ramírez.
From the city of Santa Clara, entrepreneur Yoel Espinosa Medrano said that in the Villarreal municipalities that share the border with the province of Cienfuegos, there are already people affected by the virus.
“Where the situation is a little complicated is in the town of Esperanza, which is also linked to the municipality of Ranchuelos, which is on the border with the province of Cienfuegos,” he indicated.
“It is expanding here and it is entered through that route, there are infested people there in Ranchuelos,” said the entrepreneur.
