- Title: Fumigation efforts underway as Cuba faces chikungunya epidemic
- Date: 13th November 2025
- Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (NOVEMBER 13, 2025) (REUTERS) WORKER FUMIGATING INSIDE A HOUSE FUMIGATOR LEAVING HOUSE AND RESIDENT ENTERING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESIDENT, ROBERTO LABRADA, SAYING: "My wife and I fell ill on the same day, with the same disease. It hit us hard, we had a lot of pain in our hands, we couldn't cook or prepare food. My sister and brother-in-law were affected in
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- Keywords: Chikunguyna Cuba Fumigation disease Health Mosquito
- Location: HAVANA, CUBA
- City: HAVANA, CUBA
- Country: Cuba
- Topics: Health/Medicine,South America / Central America
- Reuters ID: LVA005187513112025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: 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 epidemiologist said late on Wednesday (November 12).
Dengue fever has long plagued Cuba but has grown worse as the 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.
On Thursday (November 13), fumigators probed allies and crowded buildings in some parts of the capital Havana, among the hardest hit by the mosquito-borne virus, authorities said.
Havana resident Tania Menendez praised those efforts as a necessary first step to combatting mosquito-borne disease, but warned more needed to be done to clean up the city`s garbage cluttered streets and broken pipes.
"All these problems contribute to the spread of these epidemics," she said. Chikungunya causes severe headache, rashes and joint pain which can linger months after infection, causing long-term disability.
The World Health Organization in July issued an urgent call for action to prevent a repeat of an epidemic of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus that swept the globe two decades ago, as new outbreaks linked to the Indian Ocean region spread to Europe and the Americas.
There is no specific treatment for chikungunya, which is spread primarily by Aedes mosquito species, also a carrier of dengue and Zika.
Many Cubans, suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine, can not purchase insect repellant and face frequent power outages that leave them little choice but to leave windows and doors open in sultry conditions, facilitating the spread of the disease.
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