HAVANA.-In the midst of the complicated epidemiological situation that exists in Cuba, recognized by the health authorities themselves, the situation worsens inside the island’s prisons, as inmates, family members and independent journalists denounce to Martí Noticias.
The political prisoner of the July 11, 2021 demonstrations, Jorge Luis García García, who is serving 13 years of his sentence, held in the Boniato prison, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, yesterday called his family in Palma Soriano, to inform him that he was infected with the Oropouche Virus, the disease that produces a condition similar to dengue and that can cause meningitis, reports the web portal Martí News.
The prison doctor was the one who gave the diagnosis to his brother Daniel García: “He spoke to me yesterday afternoon, he told me that he felt bad, that he had developed a very high fever and all the discomfort. The infirmary part is full of prisoners with el virus ese de Oropouche. It is worrying because the diet is very bad and so there is no medicine to combat this virus,” said the brother of a political prisoner.
Also on Tuesday, political prisoner Jorge Bello Domínguez, an independent communicator sentenced to 15 years in prison for his participation in the protests in the town of Güira de Melena, Artemisa, had a visit at the Combinado del Este.
His mother, Martha Domínguez, reported the situation in that prison to Martí Noticias: “There is a diarrheal outbreak that is the biggest thing in life, there are people with fever“The conditions are very bad, the prisoners do not have medication, apart from that, the food is terrible,” warned the journalist’s mother. This Monday the newspaper Escambray reported that the health authorities of Sancti Spíritus do not rule out that there are cases of Oropouche in the province, given the rise in fever cases.
The inmate Pedro Mollinedo denounced the high incidence of diseases in the Nieves Morejón provincial prison.
The independent communicator Adriano Castañeda, who received the alert from that inmate in a telephone call, explained the situation to Martí Noticias: “Some prisoners are telling me that there are also outbreaks of fever and also diarrhea, vomiting, and that there is also an outbreak of tuberculosis, due to the degree of overcrowding in the Nieves Morejón provincial prison.”
Meanwhile, communicator Jiordan Marrero Huerta, who cares for inmates in the Camagüey prison system, told Martí Noticias that in the Kilo 7 and Kilo 8 prisons there is a similar situation.
“Outbreaks of diarrhea and vomiting have occurred in the prisons of Camagüey in this last week, within the prison population. They take you to the prison medical station, the doctor treats you, but he can’t prescribe anything because there is nothing,” said Marrero Huerta.
From Cienfuegos, one of the provinces affected by Oropouche and dengue, Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramírez reported that in the Ariza Provincial Prison “there is dengue, a diarrheal outbreak, there are also scabious and there was also an outbreak of tuberculosis.”
Reports indicate that the Oropouche virus was initially detected in Santiago de Cuba, it has been moving to Cienfuegos, Mayabeque and some towns in Villa Clara and also to the Cuban capital.
Source: With information from Martí Noticias
