Cuban President urges to use science to face dengue fever

Havana, July 13 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel insisted on Tuesday on the need to systematize science to deal with dengue fever when analyzing the increase in the incidence of the disease in the country.

The President said that the traditional way of dealing with this virus, considered endemic on the island, must be abandoned because it has not yielded the expected results and urged to move on to another time in the ways to control it.

At the governmental meeting, Public Health Minister José Ángel Portal informed that last week the incidence rate of suspected cases grew 42 percent from the previous week.

He added that the disease is on the rise in Cuba at this stage of the year and that five provinces currently have dengue transmission.

The territories with numbers above the national average are the Isle of Youth, Camagüey, Holguín, Havana, Guantánamo, and Pinar del Río, added the head of the sector.

Traditionally in Cuba, the actions to fight this virus are focused on reducing the infestation rates of its transmitting agent, the Aedes Aegyti mosquito, for which visits are made to the communities to eliminate the sources where this insect can live, as well as fumigation.

Dengue is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. It causes symptoms that can be mild or severe and include headache, muscle and joint pain, fever, and erythema.