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CUBA ORGANIZES TOTAL MOBILIZATION TO FIGHT DENGUE OUTBREAK.

Article Excerpt
Long respected as a leader in health care for its own people and exporter of medical services to deprived populations worldwide, Cuba now faces a domestic epidemiological challenge, the eradication of dengue fever on the island. In September, sources at the Public Health Ministry acknowledged that the nation's hospitals were becoming packed with dengue cases to the point where special wards were being created to care for them. The government has not released hard numbers, but the figures for Havana alone are said to number in the thousands. The government frequently withholds actual statistics for security reasons.

It is in the nature of the Cuban system to keep populations informed in matters of this kind, since the people participate in the solution of social problems (see NotiCen, 2006-08-10). Television programs have zeroed in on dengue, under the premise, as one show host put it, that "everyone must be aware of the problem."

Jose San Martin Martinez, director of the National Surveillance and Anti-Vector Unit of the Public Health Ministry, told the nation there was no epidemic in Cuba, but "we have three provinces infested by the mosquito: Havana city, Santiago, and Guantanamo. The other provinces are able to control the situation any time Aedes aegypti mosquitoes...