Sancti Spíritus Faced with Another Health Battle (+photos)

“If we all do what we have to, things will definitely improve”, said Eduardo González, a worker of the School Transport Company who is currently involved in the fumigation campaign in the neighborhood of Colón, in the city of Sancti Spiritus.

Eduardo is accompanied by Reinier Reyes, a worker at the Cuban Bread Company. Both make up one of the duos that since mid-April are participating in what local health authorities call an “an intensive task” aimed at the eradication of an already known enemy that is quite undesirable at the moment.

Dr. Carlos Jesús Ruiz Santos, deputy director of the Vector Department at the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology, told Escambray that at the end of March some cases of dengue were reported in the city’s south health area. In April the presence of the mosquito increased, therefore it was decided to strengthen actions in coordination with the Municipal Defense Council.

“On May 4^th we began a fumigation program which included over 80 percent of the houses in the central, north and south areas of the municipality, taking into consideration that dengue cases have been also identified in the north district”, Ruiz Santos added.

According to the doctor, the situation in the province is considered as stable in all municipalities except for Sancti Spíritus, which, together with Trinidad, Jatibonico and Cabaiguán make up a high-risk group due to the behavior of the disease over the years.

Until May 19^th, 556 Aedes aegypti breeding sites had been identified in the province, 403 of them in the capital municipality.