Havana, August 1 (RHC-PL)-- Cuban public health authorities are on alert due to an outbreak of epidemic hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, an eye ailment with increased incidence in Central America and the Caribbean between the months of September and December.

Francisco Duran Garcia, national director of the Health Ministry's  Epidemiology Department, told reporters that the disease is a virus, affecting all ages, and is expanding as an epidemic.

According to the Cuban website Infomed, an epidemic of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis has persisted since 2016 in some regional countries, particularly Haiti and the Dominican Republic, 

Conjunctivitis is more frequent in coastal areas of tropical countries with high temperatures and humidity. The highest incidence occurs during rainy seasons.

The virus was identified for the first time in Ghana in 1969, but in Cuba the first cases were detected in August 1981. Ever since, the Caribbean state has reported six epidemics of the virus -- the last one in 2003.