Favorable collaborative research on tropical infections

 By Roberto Morejón

As every summer, the Cuban health services remain on alert for the presence of arboviruses, a group of diseases caused by viruses transmitted to humans by insects and arachnids.

With the increase in rains and sweltering temperatures of the period, the largest of the Antilles maintains the usual vigilance for yellow fever, present in other latitudes, Zika, chinkungunya as well as dengue and the disease caused by the Oropouche virus, the most recent to appear in the country.

Since the beginning of the summer season, more cases of fever have been detected in this Caribbean country.

The situation has also been affected by material limitations due to the US blockade and its determination to place Cuba on a list of countries that the United States considers sponsors of terrorism.

Cuba has not been able to count on sufficient supplies to sustain a community fumigation campaign as usual.

In the face of Oropouche and Dengue fever, experts have increased public information on the causes and symptoms of these diseases, the treatments to be followed, and the importance of patients suffering from these diseases going to the doctor.

In that context, the Cubans welcomed the arrival in Havana of specialists from Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare, or Rospotrebnadzor, with the aim of updating their knowledge on tropical infections.

Together with their Cuban colleagues, the experts are already carrying out studies on diseases currently recorded in the Caribbean region.

This way, another aspect of the cooperation between Cuba and Russia is manifested in the field of health, this time based on the use of high-tech testing systems by the visitors.

The Eurasian nation helped the largest of the Antilles in the most difficult moments of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the medical oxygen plant broke down, worsening the health situation.

Now, the World Health Organization has called on countries affected by the Oropouche virus to intensify surveillance to curb the spread. 

Even in the midst of material shortages, with a low rate of technical availability of waste collection vehicles, prevention and control rules are being reinforced in the Caribbean archipelago, such as the elimination of insect breeding sites and the education of the population on procedures to avoid bites.