Jan 17 2013
"Cuban authorities are scrambling to contain a cholera outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in Havana, the capital city of 2.2 million residents and a popular tourism destination," Reuters reports (Frank, 1/15). The country's "second cholera outbreak in four months -- after 130 years without the disease -- has sickened more than 50 people and killed one in Havana, authorities and the family of the deceased said Tuesday," Agence France-Presse writes (Jara, 1/15). "The outbreak was detected on 6 January," BBC News reports, adding, "According to the health ministry, measures taken since then mean the disease is in its 'extinction phase'" (1/15). A statement from the health ministry released on Tuesday "said the latest outbreak appeared to be caused by a food vendor who had not followed proper sanitary procedures," CNN notes (Oppmann, 1/15). "Community clinics and family doctors are on high alert and giving out instructions to prevent the disease, transportation hubs have passengers sterilizing their shoes before leaving town, and eateries are being systematically inspected and sometimes closed, residents say," Reuters reports (1/15).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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