Dengue fever spreads to Cuba after leaving 100,000 victims in Brazil

Dengue fever reaches epidemic proportions in Brazil, where cases are registered from north to south of the country and now the first cases appear in Cuba.

Public health specialists in Brazil estimate that the number of cases in the state of Rio de Janeiro could have reached 100,000, since it is normal for the number of registered cases (25,386) to be far higher in practice, due to the fact that people living far from the cities let the disease run its course as if it were influenza.

The symptoms of Dengue are similar to influenza, with a high fever, headache, aching limbs, listlessness and vomiting. The disease is caused by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti and in cases of multiple infection, the patient can develop the haemorrhagic form of the disease, which is far more serious.

So far 11 people have died from the disease in the state of Rio de Janeiro, but there are 633 cases registered in the far north of the country, thousands of kilometres away in the state of Ceara. There are 17 suspected cases of haemorrhagic dengue in this state and four people have already died.

The Cuban health authorities, which will not count of medical aid from the United States due to the total embargo unilaterally imposed by Washington, an embargo which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, have reported thousands of cases and two deaths.

This is considered by Havana to be the worst epidemic of the disease in the last 20 years, the last one being in 1981, in which 158 people died.

Marcia MIRANDA PRAVDA.Ru BRAZIL In FORTALEZA, CEARA