Havana, August 7 (RHC-Granma)-- Renowned Cuban and foreign medical experts are gathering in Havana beginning today for an update on the current situation of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.

The international medical encounter is designed with a course format and will run for 11 days at Havana's Pedro Kourí Tropical Medicine Institute. It is the 15th course on dengue being taught at the Havana medical research center.

Foreign immunologists, epidemiologists, virus experts and other health professionals along Cuban medical professors and researchers are attending the course, which is geared at providing an update on findings related to diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, among them Zika, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever.

Representatives from Canada, Colombia, Argentina and the United States are attending the forum. Also experts from Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Japan, Brazil and Switzerland.

Topics for discussion at the gathering include the clinical handling of patients, vector control, vaccines, antivirals and related subjects, like the effect of climate change on mosquito-borne diseases and their outbreaks.

The event is sponsored by the Cuban Society of Microbiology and Parasitology, the Cuban Ministry of Health and the Pan-American Health Organization.