Cuban government blames health workers for coronavirus outbreak in hospital
At least 40 people were infected with the coronavirus in a hospital in Matanzas, a city east of Havana, an outbreak the Cuban government blames on the “lack of discipline” of the staff, even as doctors blamed the lack of personal protection equipment and poor sanitary conditions.
According to the official version published by the newspaper Granma, an investigation by the Ministry of Public Health at the Faustino Pérez Hospital found violations of “biosecurity measures” regarding disinfection and access to certain areas. The inspectors also determined that the medical personnel and the patients did not follow “protection protocols.”
Doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, patients, and family members are among those who got infected.
The director of Public Health in Matanzas, Ailuj Casanova Barreto, told the local newspaper Girón that the outbreak was probably related to the care of a patient who had an extended stay in the intermediate care unit. She blamed the hospital staff for displaying “overconfidence, lack of rigor, indiscipline” or “simply violating the procedures and rules established in dealing with the epidemic.”
The hospital has not been closed to the public while it is being disinfected with a chlorine solution and “detergent,” Girón reported. The newspaper published a photo of a woman cleaning at the hospital with gloves and a cloth mask but without a personal protective suit or safety goggles. Other images posted on the hospital’s Facebook page show other workers cleaning with brooms and protected only by cloth masks and gloves.
The streets of Matanzas are also being disinfected with bleach and water.
While the hospital staff has been reprimanded in public, doctors have been pushing back against the criticisms.
A Facebook post by Julio Martínez, a doctor at the Faustino Pérez hospital, suggests that the director of the center, Dr. Andrés Lamas Acevedo, was replaced after a visit by health officials following the outbreak. Martinez said the hospital director had tried to alert local authorities about a year-long problem with the water supply in the intermediate therapy unit and other areas.
In comments on Facebook, several doctors currently working at the hospital also praised Lamas Acevedo’s management style and protested the measure. A worker who answered the hospital phone said she could not confirm that the director had been replaced.
Other doctors have blamed healthcare officials for not providing the necessary protective equipment for staff and patients.
“What happened in Cárdenas and the Faustino Perez Hospital is a warning sign,” Dr. Lizbet León Herrera wrote on Facebook. “A warning sign for the health authorities who should have been aware of the complexity of the epidemic and should have provided means of protection everywhere.”
León Herrera works at the Julio M. Aristegui General Teaching Hospital in the Matanzas city of Cárdenas. The hospital was closed in late April when several workers tested positive for COVID-19.
“Even today, after the local transmission event in Cárdenas, hospital professionals who perform invasive procedures still do not have N95” masks, said León Herrera. “What are we talking about if the majority of patients are asymptomatic?”
Dr. María del Carmen Álvarez, the mother of a doctor at the Faustino Pérez hospital who got sick with the virus, also wrote on Facebook that the staff was “poorly protected.”
“What a pity! Sick and publicly sanctioned,” she said, speaking of some of the workers at the hospital.
A man who answered Álvarez’s phone said that she was not available for comment.
The government has not disclosed the total number of health workers who have contracted the coronavirus. In early April, health officials were informed of an outbreak at the Calixto García hospital in Havana, where 14 doctors and eight nurses got infected.
The new cases in Matanzas come when official figures suggest that the virus is under control on the island, a trend that goes counter to what is happening in Latin America, where the number of confirmed cases exceeds two million.
On Tuesday, the director of the Pan American Health Organization, Carissa F. Etienne, warned that a new wave of cases was spreading throughout the region, mainly linked to vulnerable social groups and people with chronic diseases.
Despite 14 “local transmission events” reported as “active” in the official press, and quarantines in several neighborhoods in Havana and other provinces, the Ministry of Public Health has reported a decline in the number of new cases of coronavirus infections. As of May 18, it has reported no deaths in six days.
As of Tuesday, authorities reported 1,887 confirmed cases of people who have contracted the coronavirus and 79 deaths.
Follow Nora Gámez Torres on Twitter: @ngameztorres
