Cuba steps up fight against mosquitos

Cuba steps up fight against mosquitos
From correspondents in Havana, Cuba
24aug06

CUBA has stepped up measures to check the spread of dengue, a
mosquito-transmitted virus that causes a fever that can be deadly.

Public health officials called on Cubans this week to help eradicate the
Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which carries the virus and reproduces on
stagnant water. Health workers have been fumigating homes door-to-door
and checking water tanks.

Havana residents have also awakened to the sound of a Soviet-era Antonov
2 biplane roaring low over their roof-tops as it sprayed insecticide.

The dengue virus can turn into a hemorrhagic form which kills 1 in 20
people.

Authorities have not released the number of infections, but anecdotal
reports indicate an increase in the number of cases this year.

Most people who get infected by dengue develop a fever and rash, but
recover in about five days.

Medical experts say dengue is an example of the re-emergence of viral
infectious disease in the world.

Cuba suffered an epidemic of hemorrhagic dengue in 1981, the first in
the Americas. According to the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute,
the country's main fighter of viral disease, some 344,000 people caught
dengue and 10,300 developed the potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever.

An isolated outbreak in Santiago, Cuba's second largest city, resulted
in 3,000 cases of dengue in 1997, the institute said.

In 2005, Cuba reported 75 cases of dengue to the Pan-American Health
Organization.

The World Health Organization estimates 50 million people are infected
each year by dengue in tropical and subtropical regions.

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