Imagine a nasty epidemic breaking out in the US. Now imagine the American Medical Association blasting the CDC for covering up the facts.
That kind of political battle has evidently been going on for some time in the Dominican Republic, and now it's out in the open. Via the Dominican Medical College website, a report dated May 20: CMD REALIZA VISITA COMUNIDAD “EL AGUACATE” POR DENUNCIA BROTE DE COLERA.[DMC visits El Aguacate to denounce cholera outbreak] The entire post, with my translation:
“El Aguacate” un sector enclavado en la Puya de Arroyo Hondo, zona Norte del Distrito Nacional, donde viven en condiciones infrahumana cientos de personas, que hoy están alarmadas por la epidemia del cólera, pidiendo a las autoridades del Ministerio de Salud y otras instancias ir en su auxilio, para evitar que la enfermedad siga expandiéndose, fue visitado por el Presidente del Colegio Médico Dominicano (CMD), doctor Senén Caba, quién produjo un descenso para constatar los casos de cólera que- a juicio de los residentes- se han elevado de 36 a 40 personas afectadas.
El Aguacate [The Avocado] is an enclave of La Puya in Arroyo Hondo, in the northern National District, where hundreds of people live in subhuman conditions. Today they are alarmed by the cholera epidemic, asking the Ministry of Health and other agencies to come to their aid to prevent the disease from continuing to expand. Dr. Senén Caba, president of the Dominican Medical College, visited El Aguacate and produced a tally of cholera cases that, in the opinion of the residents, has risen to 36 to 40 persons.
Caba, quien estuvo acompañado por los doctores Clemente Terrero, Vicepresidente del gremio y Mery Hernández, de Relaciones Púbicas, consideró que con la situación de pobreza que se registra en la zona, la enfermedad podría permanecer e incrementarse por mucho tiempo.
Caba, who was accompanied by Dr. Clemente Terrero, vice-president of the organization, and Dr. Mery Hernández, of Public Relations, said that given the poverty of the area, the disease could remain and grow for a long time.
Sostuvo que el presente hecho pone en evidencia la realidad de la crisis, situación que el Ministerio ha querido ocultar. Asimismo, dijo esperar que en los próximos meses esto pueda cambiar, con la iniciativa del Presidente Doctor Leonel Fernández, de involucrarse de forma directa para dar seguimiento a las estrategias que lleva a cabo la “Comisión del Cólera” que, hasta ahora, no ha podido enfrentar con éxito la citada problemática.
He said the present situation is evidence for the reality of the crisis, a situation the Ministry has wanted to hide. As well, he hoped that this would change in the coming months at the initiative of President Leonel Fernández if he involves himself directly in the Cholera Commission, which has so far been unable to deal effectively with the problem.
“El escenario es preocupante y pone en evidencia que la situación se les ha ido de la mano a las autoridades del Ministerio de Salud. La enfermedad ya tiene aproximadamente más de 20 barrios tomados”, expresó Caba.
"The scenario is worrying and is evidence that the situation stems from the hands of the authorities in the Ministry of Health," Caba said. "The disease has now taken over 20 more neighbourhoods."
El representante del CMD realizó el recorrido por un laberinto de callejones acompañado de los miembros de la junta de vecinos de la zona.
The DMC representative walked through the labyrinth of alleys accompanied by members of the neighbourhood council.I vividly recall the slums of Mexico City in the 1950s; I lived in one in Tacubaya, where our neighbours lived in shacks of cardboard and scrap lumber, and defecated in the open on the other side of our garden wall. El Aguacate sounds like more of the same.
For the head of the DMC to attack the Ministry of Health over a disease stemming from poverty suggests that all is not well in the Dominican Republic.
