Off the coast of a long-contested political relationship, the U.S. Embassy in Havana has issued a health alert marking a surge in diarrheal illness across Cuba — a condition ancient in its simplicity and devastating in its implications. The outbreak is not a mystery of nature but a consequence of infrastructure failing under the weight of import restrictions, as the chemicals that clean water and the equipment that keeps food cold grow scarce. When the systems that stand between a population and contamination begin to erode, it is always the most vulnerable who feel it first.
U.S. Embassy warns of disease surge in Cuba as sanctions choke imports
Significant increase in diarrheal illnesses affecting the Cuban population due to contaminated water and inadequate food refrigeration.