健康英语新闻:Cuba launches massive anti-dengue campaign

HAVANA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's Ministry of Public Health launched an intensive sanitation campaign Monday against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which can spread dengue fever.

The operation, which is running through Sept. 15, will cover the most vulnerable cities in the country, including the capital Havana and the eastern city Guantanamo.

Deputy Health Minister Luis Estruch stressed the importance of the prevention campaign and urged all families to check their houses for mosquitoes each week.

Maria Guadalupe Guzman, director of the Pan-American and World Health Organization Cooperation Center for the study of Dengue and Its Vector at the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine, said the epidemiological situation in the country is stable. However, she warned that an epidemic outbreak is still possible in the island state, given the high temperatures and heavy rains in the eastern areas, and drought in the west.

Cuba, along with Chile and Uruguay, are the only Latin American countries where dengue is not endemic.

In 1981, the country suffered its worst dengue outbreak in history, which left 158 dead.