Camagüey works hard to eliminate Aedes aegypti mosquito

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 27 (acn) Once again in the province of Camagüey, especially in the municipality of the same name, forces are mobilized for the eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, although its fluctuating increase indicates that campaign is still lacking in sustainability.

A common enemy in hot and rainy seasons, this time in the midst of the drought that afflicts the territory, the rate of infestation detected in inspected homes is striking, which is far above the permissible of 0.05 to avoid transmission of diseases.

Data provided on the radio program Sin Rodeos, by the provincial radio station Cadena Agramonte, by Fernando González, Director of Public Health in Camagüey, also indicate that 80 percent of those outbreaks are in low tanks and water tanks in homes.

These figures focus on a problem identified year after year when the epidemiological situation, although it is not the case now, reaches high points, and is the poor perception of risk of the population to the real danger of Aedes aegypti, especially when the incidence of arboviruses transmitted by this vector grows in the area of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Difficulties in the supply of water oblige the collection of liquid for domestic use, but this also implies that the residents have an obligation to avoid that the deposits become breeding grounds, and to place hermetic covers or to look for alternatives in the absence of closures suitable for each container.

Keeping in them the slaughter provided by the operators of the vector campaign, a product against insect larvae and totally innocuous for humans, is another guarantee to prevent their reproduction and proliferation, and eliminate other possible repositories in the home, and allow and respect the guidance of health personnel and fumigation schemes.

But as more citizen cooperation is demanded, the institutions responsible for environmental sustainability must also play a more severe role, as Luris Carrazana, neighbor of one of the health areas most affected by the presence of the mosquito, said.

Sometimes they come and they only ask for the "paper" -register of the visits of the vector campaign-, and do not fumigate or do it wrong, nor do they check the surroundings of the houses, which can be clean, just as if in rivers, Streams or puddles do nothing, there remains the insect, said the old woman.

In the aforementioned Sin Rodeos program, we questioned, for example, the limited amount of fines imposed in relation to the number of foci found, to garbage dumps created by negligence, and the constant complaints to Aqueducts and Sewers by leaks and obstructions that also contribute to the proliferation of vector.

If all this concentrates on a cohesive multidisciplinary work of shared responsibilities, it is possible to minimize this dreaded vector whose presence is a suitable field for diseases such as Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya.