Cuba fights to contain spread of mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus

Cuba is fighting a wave of mosquito-borne illnesses including dengue and chikungunya virus that have swept the island in recent weeks, affecting nearly one-third of the population and sickening swaths of workers, the country's top epidimiologist said late on Wednesday.



Dengue fever has long plagued Cuba but has grown worse as an economic crisis hampers the government's ability to fumigate, clean roadside trash and patch leaky pipes. Chikungunya, once rare on the island, has also spread quickly in recent months.



"The situation is acute," said Francisco Duran, the country's chief epidimiologist. He said the government was working "intensely" as during the COVID-19 pandemic to seek medications and vaccines to help tame the virus` impacts.



On Thursday, fumigators probed alleys and crowded buildings in some parts of the capital Havana, among the hardest hit by the mosquito-borne virus, authorities said.