Havana , Cuba ( CNN ) -- Cuba 's government declared Tuesday that health workers had eradicated a cholera outbreak that infected 417 people and killed three , according to a statement from the country 's Health Ministry . In early July , Cuba said the sometimes fatal water-borne illness had returned to the eastern part of the island . It was the first outbreak of the disease in Cuba in more than a century . Cuban doctors battle to control cholera outbreak . Doctors were not certain how cholera was reintroduced to the island , but said that heavy rains that caused outhouses to flood into drinking wells were to blame for the disease 's rapid rate of transmission . Cholera , a bacterial infection of the small intestine , causes severe diarrhea and vomiting in infected people . During a visit by CNN in July to hospitals at the epicenter of the outbreak , doctors said they initially struggled with the surge of people sickened by the disease . `` They started coming in a few at a time , '' said Julio Cesar Fonseca Rivero , director of the Celia Sanchez Manduley Hospital , the largest in Granma Province . That province was the hardest hit by the outbreak . `` The first day five came , and then eight . The most critical days were when there were 30 to 32 patients who arrived in a single day . '' The disease , according to the World Health Organization , still infects between 3 million and 5 million people each year , killing between 100,000 and 120,000 . Cuban health officials said they responded to the outbreak by bringing in clean drinking water , closing down food stands in affected areas and setting up checkpoints on roads to keep people ill with the disease from traveling . Cuban leader Raul Castro mentioned the outbreak in a speech to the nation in late July , saying it had been brought under control . According to the Health Ministry statement released Tuesday , 10 days have passed since the last reported case of cholera .
The cholera outbreak hit Granma Province the hardest . Doctors do n't know how the disease was reintroduced to the island nation . Score: 6