Havana Cuba. – It has become customary for the national and local official media to frequently broadcast messages of public good with health recommendations in the face of the danger of spreading a disease, the more frequent the more extensive the epidemic. Of course, without revealing or recognizing in any case the proliferation of any ailment. However, we Cubans have learned to read between the convoluted lines of official discourse. This is the case, for example, with the current dengue epidemic, which has worsened in recent months. This potentially deadly disease, transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, years ago was typical of summer due to high temperatures, humidity and rain. However, in our country it has not withdrawn for so long that it has already become an endemic disease.
However, it is improbable that in these announcements the population is ordered to eradicate the mosquito, when the conditions for its reproduction and propagation are given by the work of bad government administration. Well, it is the responsibility of the Community Services Company to clean up the green areas and keep the garbage dumps empty that spend days overflowing with waste on public roads, where not only mosquitoes swarm but also rats, gophers, flies and cockroaches, as is the case with the Provincial Road Companies to remove potholes and ditches from destroyed streets, which have not been repaired for years and where both rainwater and leak water accumulate (which in turn are the responsibility of the La Aguas Company). Havana and its provincial counterparts, which have not cleaned up the clogged sewers for decades either).
Nor do the workers of the anti-vector campaign inspect our homes anymore (they claim that they have no means to work with), something that sometimes annoyed us for being inopportune, but that forced us not to neglect the fight against the mosquito. That truck that invaded our streets with white smoke also disappeared while the smell of insecticide penetrated through the cracks in the doors and windows very early in the morning when many of us were preparing to start the workday.
Thus, the conditions are created for the transmitting agent to pay respects as it does, spreading dengue throughout the country, without forgetting that the dreaded zika may not have disappeared. Meanwhile, they ask us to take measures to avoid dengue, but how? We all know that ending Aedes Aegypti outbreaks is vital to interrupt transmission, but for this an effective anti-vector campaign is necessary, and this relies on the Public Health authorities. In July 2022, a reinforcement plan to confront the vector was disclosed, but the citizens perceive little or nothing of the results of those announced eight measures.
Sometimes we hear neighbors commenting on the possibility that someone has dengue, because there is no quick method for its diagnosis, but rather it is left to the doctor’s discretion according to the patient’s symptoms, who generally only go to the office looking for a prescription for a analgesic. How to take care of ourselves then if there are no insecticides in the markets to fumigate in our houses? There is also no supply for the water that we must accumulate for daily use, since the supply is not maintained 24 hours a day. We also do not have mosquito nets, so necessary to isolate the sick in our homes, since it is useless to carry out the weekly vector self-control if there is no way to eliminate the mosquito.
However, there is good news: According to Eduardo Martinez Diaz, president of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industry (BioCubaFarma), in the course of 2023 a new rapid diagnosis system for dengue should be available and there is a chance of having the first vaccine candidate against the disease this year. Meanwhile, we Cubans only have to apply the great recommendation of the designated president: not to let ourselves be bitten by mosquitoes.
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