PINAR DEL RIO, January 18 (Víctor Rolando Arroyo, UPECI /
www.cubanet.org) - More than 200 students, at least two of them in a extreme
serious condition, were hospitalized in the province of Pinar del Rio.
To this date the ailment from which they suffer hasn't been identify. Some
of the symptoms are vomiting, nausea, fatigue, dehydration and contraction of
the pupil. All these students were working in the tobacco fields.
The information, offered by the Dr Luis Ruiz Rivas, member of the
Independent Medical School, adds that it is presumed that a chemical pesticide
could be the cause.
The students that were first affected were reported in the afternoon of
January 15th, and all of them from two working camps located near
the town Las Ovas, 20 kilometers east of the city of Pinar del Rio.
Later it was known that students of the vocational school Federico Engels,
of this city, showed similar symptoms. The students were working in El Vizcaíno
area, located 6 kilometers from town.
Some of the students were admitted to the toxicology unit of the Leon Cuervo
Rubio Hospital, and others to the Federico Engels school hospital. The two
students in critical condition were reported as very serious and they are
staying in the intensive care unit of the Pinar del Rio children's hospital.
The third bud was located 50 kilometers to the north of the city, in the
area of the town El Moncada, of the Viñales municipality. The students
showed the symptoms in the morning of January 17th. By the end of
the day, tens of cases were reported also in the municipality of San Juan y
Martinez.
Dissident activist Pedro González Acosta informed that the situation
in San Juan y Martinez is alarming, and that the students were being admitted at
the municipality hospital and from there were urgently transferred to other
hospitals. A political police officer forced Pedro González to leave the
hospital.
So far the authorities have not made this situation known to the public.
Several thousands of students of all levels work on the fields in Cuba,
mostly in the harvesting of the tobacco, coffee and vegetables.
Versión
original en español
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