THE DENGUE EPIDEMIC IN CUBA

THE DENGUE EPIDEMIC IN CUBA

By Humberto (Bert) Corzo
Contribuitor
La Nueva Cuba
September 9, 2006

''The dengue virus has been eradicated in our homeland,'' Castro said
after handing out diplomas to representatives of groups recruited for
the campaign. ``Today is a day of satisfaction for all residents of the
capital and the entire country.'' Fidel Castro declared victory in his
government's military-style campaign against dengue fever during a
ceremony honoring those whose efforts helped wipe out the mosquito that
spreads the virus. HAVANA - March 2002(AP)

Fidel Castro, in his reference to the history of dengue in Cuba in the
television program "Mesa Redonda", February 1st, 2002, said "the big
tragedy of 1981 was the apparition of dengue hemorrhagic and reiterate
it was introduce deliberated in the country", without making reference
to the 1977 epidemic.

In an interview published in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, January 13,
2002, doctor María Guadalupe Guzmán, chief of the virological department
of the National Laboratory for the study of viroid diseases, part of the
Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kourí (IPK), expressed that the
investigations about the dengue carried on by IPK include the analysis
of the epidemics of 1977, 1981 and 1997. "In the 81 epidemic, we had a
population of children and adults who were already infected in the 77
with the dengue one and four years later with the dengue two", pointed
out the doctor. Castro's affirmation of the deliberate introduction of
dengue in the country in 1981, it is at odds with doctor Guzmán
statements. As the saying goes "it is easy to detect first a liar than
one who limps".

The dengue fever epidemic has become endemic in Cuba. During 1979 and
outbreak of dengue fever caused more than 100 deaths. Again in 1981
another outbreak of dengue fever affected thousand of people, causing
158 deaths, of which 101 were children.

In 1997 a serious outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Santiago de
Cuba caused dozen of deaths and thousands required hospitalization. Dr.
Dessy Mendoza, the Cuban doctor who reported the serious outbreak of
dengue fever in eastern Cuba, was sentenced to 8 years in prison,
accused of enemy propaganda. Nevertheless the magazine of the
Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kourí, published in English in the
year 1999, confirmed the outbreak of the dengue epidemic in Santiago de
Cuba in 1997. This happened in spice of the declarations of Castro's
tyranny of the elimination of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, vector of
dengue, years before.

From November 2000 to December 2001, the independent journalists have
reported around 500 cases of dengue hemorrhagic and close to 50 deaths.
The official press did not give number of cases or the number of deaths.

details of the outbreak public

By December 2002, after the eradication of the dengue virus according to
the regimen official propaganda, the number of cases of dengue
hemorrhagic fever was around 1000 with a death toll close to 50. Of
course the mosquitoes were unaware that they have been eradicated.

In August 2005, several persons in Ranchuelo were diagnostic with
dengue, and in January 2006 the dengue epidemic had spread to most of
the oriental provinces, with three deaths confirmed in Santiago de Cuba
in May. Numerous cases of dengue have been confirmed in several
municipalities of Havana by July. At the end of August the dengue
hemorrhagic epidemic had cause over 25 deaths in Havana and other 40 in
Santiago de Cuba, according to reports of the independent journalists.

This type of epidemic only occurs nowadays in third world countries.
Obviously this shall not happen in the "medical power" category assigned
to Cuba by the propaganda of
Castro's tyranny agents. The deterioration of the infrastructure (sewer
systems, aqueducts, dams, garbage disposal, etc.), had caused a huge
declined in the hygiene standards and the proliferation of infectious
diseases like dengue, meningoencephalitis, conjunctivitis, leptospirosis
and others.

Castro's tyranny has always tried to hide the facts, instead of asking
the international community for help to eradicate the epidemic. None of
the epidemics which have flagellated the Island, have been as pernicious
as the epidemic represented by Castro's regime.

During Cuba Republican era before 1959, the battle against the Aedes
aegypti mosquito, vector of the yellow fever, allowed to eradicate the
thread of a returned of this disease to the Island, and the vaccination
against small-pox, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, typhus and others
infectious diseases, turned the Republic as one of the healthy country
in the world.

Cuba was one of six countries at world level exempt of quarantine measures.

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