Cuba Calls for Stronger Precautions Against Dengue and Zika Outbreaks

Two young people of the Youth Labor Army with the fumigation ’backpackmachine’. (14ymedio)

14ymedio biggerEFE via 14ymedio, Havana, 31 July 2018 — Cuban health authorities acknowledged the existence of outbreaks of dengue fever and zika in several provinces of the country and asked citizens to “reinforce prevention measures” in the summer rains, the official media reported on Tuesday.

“In  Cuba, chikungunya has not been reported for two years, and yellow fever has been eliminated since 1909, but in the case of dengue fever and zika there are outbreaks of transmission in several parts of the country,” the director of Epidemiology with the Ministry of Public Health, Francisco Durán, told the state newspaper Granma.

The source did not specify which areas are affected and referred to information from various media, according to which at least 10 people have died in the last weeks in central and eastern Cuba due to hemorrhagic dengue fever.

In Cuba, the epidemiological situation is considered almost a matter of State and the dissemination of figures on the numbers infected by viruses and levels of transmission is not common in the press, almost all of which is state controlled.

The increase in diseases transmitted by mosquitoes in the summer is due to the increase in heat associated with the rains, which is very marked this year,” Durán warned.

Faced with this situation, the Cuban State responds with the cleaning of possible sources of transmission, “weekly fumigations, inspection of homes, surveillance and daily screening of the population, looking for people with symptoms of these diseases.”

Despite the government’s effort, “the cornerstone in the prevention and control of these viruses remains the responsibility of families and individuals to cooperate with these measures,” the doctor insisted.

Durán also recalled that summer “the rise” of respiratory and diarrheal diseases is common, but stressed that their incidence in Cuba “has decreased and cholera has not been reported for two years.”

According to the most recent official data, published last March,  Cuba  reduced dengue cases by 68% in 2017, recorded no chikungunya patients, and detected autochthonous Zika transmission in 14 of its 169 municipalities.
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