Two dead, hundreds sick in Cuban Dengue outbreak
( 2002-02-02 15:08 ) (7 )

Dengue fever has killed two people and stricken hundreds in Havana in recent months, President Fidel Castro said on Friday, despite an emergency campaign to contain the worst outbreak of the disease in Cuba in two decades.

"By November 28th, 1,601 cases were reported in Havana. After that the situation became worse," Castro said during a three-hour televised speech explaining what the government was doing to bring the epidemic under control.

"Unfortunately two people have died, but no children," he said.

He did not say how many new dengue cases were reported since November.

Three weeks ago Castro declared "war" against mosquitoes that transmit the disease and the government launched a massive fumigation and clean-up drive in Havana, mobilizing thousands of construction workers, students and community activists.

Havana hospitals have created special wards to care for and isolate the sick. Workers move from house to house, fumigating buildings, tractors clear garbage from streets and trucks spray insecticide in neighborhoods.

Castro said the effort was paying off.

"When we began there were 1,600 areas with large concentrations of mosquitoes, and at last count there were 221," he said. "There is no alternative; we must eradicate the mosquitoes altogether."

Dengue, which causes severe pain, fever, headaches and nausea, normally passes after about a week. But patients have to be treated to avoid complications, especially with hemorrhagic dengue, which occurs from repeated exposure to different strains of the virus.

Castro said the outbreak in Havana was of a less dangerous variety, not hemorrhagic dengue.

While the disease is endemic throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba has had only few outbreaks.

The last national dengue epidemic was in 1981, killing 158 people. In 1997 there was a local outbreak in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, but no deaths were reported.