Cholera re-emerges in Cuba - Telegraph That outbreak, which hit in July and was declared eradicated August 28, claimed the lives of three people and infected 417. It was the first time cholera had been reported on the Caribbean island since 1882. The Health Ministry said the Havana outbreak "is in a phase of extinction." The cholera was "generated by a food vendor, an asymptomatic carrier of the disease, contracted earlier in other regions of the country," the Health Ministry said. The latest outbreak first appeared in a working class district called Cerro situated in the centre of Havana, between the Plaza of the Revolution and the city's main baseball stadium. Rumours of a cholera outbreak spread in recent days after doctors and nurses began going door to door in certain neighbourhoods to distribute medicine. They came to all the houses and said: 'Are you allergic to penicillin?' And they gave us three Doxycycline pills to take, but wouldn't tell us anything," a woman told AFP. I asked them if it was cholera, and they laughed but didn't tell us anything. Arasay Silva, whose Cerro music shop is next to the usually busy pizzeria "El Gran Pizzero," said authorities shut down the restaurant indefinitely. The Health Ministry called on the public to pay increased attention to hygiene, urging frequent hand washing, the drinking of chlorinated water, and careful cleaning and cooking of food. Preventive measures also were being taken at Havana clinics and schools, various sources told AFP. Rodriguez praised the medical attention her son received, but said he had been weakened by alcoholism. "If he had been a strong person he would have been saved," said Yanicet Pino, the victim's sister, who said Pino first presented symptoms on December 22 but refused to see a doctor. The outbreak comes at the height of the tourist season in Cuba, which runs from December to April, when planeloads of travellers descend on the island from Canada, Europe and Latin America. Nearly three million tourists visited Cuba last year.