Cubans on Oropouche virus: "There are people who have fallen in the street"

Cubans claim that the country does not have the conditions to combat the Oropouche virus (OROV) due to the accumulation of landfills, leaks of sewage, lack of resources for fumigation, and power outages.

Doctor Roberto Serrano, from the municipality of Songo la Maya in Santiago, the epicenter of the outbreak on the island, reported to Martí Noticias that there are many cases with high fever and severe headaches in the sacro-lumbar area and in the muscle part of the lower limbs.

"Combined with vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite. It is a quite serious picture that significantly impairs people's health," he said.

There are people who have fallen in the street because it is quite strong. I am telling you this because I went through it, I am going through it because I have been with the condition for almost a week, today I was able to go to work, thank God," he added.

Serrano also pointed out that the population does not have mosquito nets and that it is very difficult to protect themselves from the mosquito that transmits the virus, the Culex quinquefasciatus, a type of tiny biting midge that is barely visible when it bites and is abundant in the area.

Neighborhoods, when one person falls, the whole neighborhood falls. Here there is absolutely nothing in the polyclinics, nor in the pharmacies either, not even dipyrone to bring down the fever," he emphasized.

Another province where cases have been diagnosed is Cienfuegos. From there, activist Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramírez reported that doctors are telling the sick to go home and drink liquids.

"There are no medications. Fumigation is not being carried out," he emphasized.

According to De la Nuez Ramírez, there are dozens of sick people in the municipalities of Rodas, Aguada de Pasajeros, and Cienfuegos.

The Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) has sent a letter to the directors and heads of postgraduate departments on the island warning that the current epidemiological situation may become "more complex" due to the increase in episodes of "nonspecific" fever in Santiago de Cuba.

Miguel Ángel Ruano, a Cuban doctor residing in Colombia and president of the Free Cuban Medical Guild, had access to said letter, in which a MINSAP executive admits that "there are no vaccines or specific antiviral medications available to treat Oropouche virus infection." Therefore, patients are prescribed palliative treatment, "focused on relieving pain, rehydrating the patient, and controlling any vomiting that may occur."

In an interview granted to CiberCuba, Ruano emphasized that "the healthcare system is not prepared to face" this epidemic and the lack of resources could lead to many of the infections developing into meningitis or encephalitis, which are much more serious.