EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana 17 March 2022 — In 2021, Cuba detected the highest number of breeding sites for the mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus in the last 15 years, as confirmed this Wednesday by the Island’s Ministry of Public Health.
In a statement, the Ministry indicated that 71.1% of the mosquito breeding sites were detected in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Villa Clara.
In addition, the highest incidence was found during the months of June, September and October of last year.
The Ministry’s press release clarifies that, as of September, dengue cases were reduced by 29.3% compared to 2020, although without citing the figures.
In addition, it reported that the presence of the mosquito that transmits the viral disease has been increasing since 2007.
On the other hand, the health authorities point out that there are no records of other arboviruses — transmitted by insects, such as the mosquito — such as chikungunya and zika since 2019 and 2017, respectively.
They also alerted to the fact that that in seven out of ten cases, larvae of the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are detected in water storage tanks.
According to the Ministry, during 2021 in the American continent, 1,173,674 cases of dengue, 131,630 of chikungunya and 18,804 of zika were detected.
In January, a pilot trial of a nuclear technique by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) culminated in Cuba with almost 1.3 million mosquitoes, and managed to reduce the population of the Aedes aegypti species by up to 90%.
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