Traditional Carnivals Suspended Due to Cholera in Cuba

Traditional Carnivals Suspended Due to Cholera in Cuba
Published July 19, 2012
EFE

Traditional summer carnivals in the eastern Cuban cities of Bayamo and
Manzanillo have been suspended due to an outbreak of cholera in the
region, authorities said Wednesday.

The celebrations, scheduled for August, were canceled "to avoid the
spread of illnesses," a Communist Party official in Granma province told
Efe.

Though the cholera situation is under control, authorities were
concerned about possible contagion of the "floating population"
attracted by the carnivals, a source in the Bayamo municipal government
told Efe.

The outbreak was detected last month in Manzanillo, a city of more than
130,000 residents that has accounted for a majority of the 158 cases of
cholera reported by Cuba's Public Health Ministry.

Three people have died so far, according to the official account.

The outbreak is easing and the few "isolated cases" of cholera in other
parts of Cuba have been traced to people who were infected in
Manzanillo, the ministry said in its latest bulletin, released last
Saturday.

Authorities in Granma have banned the use of wells, distributed a
chemical compound to purify water and called on residents to boil water
before drinking, cook food thoroughly and wash their hands often.

Cuba's last cholera epidemic was in 1882 and the current outbreak is the
first since 1959, the year Fidel Castro toppled strongman Fulgencio Batista.

http://latino.foxnews.com/2012/07/18/cholera-outbreak-spoils-carnivals-in-eastern-cuba/