Public Health on high alert for cholera in slums

[NewsWhore]

The Ministry of Health has declared a state of high alert aimed at preventing and controlling cholera cases in the National District. The flow of patients suspected of having contracted the disease are overwhelming the number of beds in a ward that was specially set up at the Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital. 19 patients have been hospitalized with cholera symptoms there and nine are being treated at the Francisco Moscoso Puello hospital. Of these, 15 are from the barrio of La Cienaga, where people live in insanitary conditions. Three are from La Puya of Arroyo Hondo and three are from Gualey. Family members told Diario Libre reporters that there was only one bathroom in the specialized ward, that they (the patients) were dirty, and that neither the nurses nor the doctors changed the disposable diapers, nor did they allow them (the relatives) to perform that duty. The area prepared for cholera patients is under construction and the floor is rough, it is not air-conditioned and is therefore very hot. The families assembled at the entrance also complained of the requirement to pay as much as RD$1200 for a lab test that was prescribed and they had to take the sample outside the hospital. This was resolved with the inspection visit made by the Deputy Minister of Health, Nelson Rodriguez Monegro, of Health Services, and Jose Rodriguez Aybar, of Collective Health, to the medical center, since they told the staff that the Ministry of Health would take on the costs and the transfer of the samples.

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