Cuba can control possible major epidemic due to COVID-19, Cuban expert says

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 3 (ACN) Cuba can control a possible major epidemic caused by COVID-19 thanks to its health system and well-planned organization, Dr. Manuel Romero Placeres, director of the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), said on Thursday.

 In a conversation with the Cuban News Agency, he explained that in general the evolution of those admitted for the new coronavirus in the center has been favorable and although there are patients in a serious state due to complications typical of the disease, medical discharges like the one of the 94-year-old Cuban citizen prevail.

Three weeks after the confirmation of the first cases of COVID-19 in Cuba, Romero Placeres stated that the increase in the number of cases cannot be described as abrupt, but that the measures taken in the country are showing a response.

 He expressed that, together with other entities, the IPK is developing different diagnostic protocols, either by rapid kit or real time PCR, and care, by using different medicines currently applied in the world to fight the pandemic.

 Regarding the rapid tests implemented at present, he stated that these make it possible to make an initial diagnosis of positive cases that are asymptomatic, which are immediately admitted for confirmation through the nasopharyngeal exudate.

 Romero Placeres added that we must all be alert, because the new coronavirus can be initially confused with an arbovirus, presenting feverish symptoms and in the absence of respiratory symptoms; it is also similar in this phase to a common influenza or cold.

  IPK has been preparing for the current situation since last December, but we admit we never thought the disease would reach the current levels, which require action from all countries or the numbers of infected and dead will exceed those of previous pandemics, the director concluded.