Column: The dengue cover-up (9/29/06)

By MARC R. MASFERRER

The exact nature of Fidel Castro's illness has been guarded by the Cuban government as a "state secret."

Similarly, a veil of secrecy, and perhaps deceit, has been cast on a much more serious health problem for Cuba: An apparent epidemic of dengue.

"Apparent" is the only way to describe it, since the Cuban government — as is typical of a dictatorship that uses controls on information to repress its people — has not been forthcoming with details about the current crisis. Everyone in Havana and other cities has seen the clouds of insecticides used to attack the disease-carrying mosquitos that spread dengue, and heard exhortations from temporary dictator Raúl Castro and other government officials about the importance of stamping out the epidemic.

But there has been no information released by the government detailing how widespread the epidemic really is.

Reports from overseas, as well as the domestic independent press, have cited a wide range of figures — anywhere from 4,000 to 35,000 people infected, and anywhere from 40 to 700 dead. (On a per capita basis, that would be the equivalent of as many as 955,000 Americans infected, with as many as 19,000 dead.)

Instead of releasing details about the size of the epidemic, the regime has resorted to what dictatorships do best: Repression. Coincidentally, but probably not, at least two independent journalists, Odelin Alfonso and Abel Escobar who had reported about the epidemic have recently been detained and threatened by the police.

And now, according to a new story written by Escobar — Cuba’s independent journalists are some of the bravest scribes in the world — and distributed by CubaNet, health workers describe how they have been warned not to release information about the dengue epidemic.

Here is the story, which I received via e-mail, in its entirety:

Health workers threatened if outbreak information leaks

MORON, Cuba – September 26 (Abel Escobar Ramírez / www.cubanet.org) –
Workers at the Morón General Hospital in Ciego de Ávila province say
they have been warned that should any of them leak any information about the
current outbreak of dengue fever they will lose their jobs without any right to appeal.

One worker who asked not to be named said the different departments in
the facility have been informed that should any information leak out to
radio stations or web pages abroad, the informants will be fired
because this information, according to hospital administrators, "is used
by the enemy to overthrow the Revolution."

The worker said that in general workers are fearful to express any
concerns they may have lest they be taken as informants and fired. So, he
said, a recent breakdown of the water pumps feeding the hospital went
unreported for days.

There you have it, “the revolution,” not the health and welfare of the people or their right to know what is happening in their own country takes precedence — no matter the cost. Especially when what is at stake is one of the fundamental pillars of the revolution — Cuba’s vaunted health care system — and the regime’s very hold on power.

So Cubans don’t know how sick Fidel Castro really is.

And they don’t know how likely it is or isn’t that they will come down with a potentially deadly disease.

Abajo la revolución, indeed.