Spraying time

Just how serious is the dengue fever epidemic in Cuba?

Foreign wire services have filed numerous stories over the past month or so - and photographs like the one you see above from Associated Press - about a national fumigation campaign against Aedes Aegypti, the mosquito that carries the disease.

But it seems the problem may be much more widespread, judging by the number and tone of the reports appearing in the official Cuban media, which rarely if ever publish negative news about the island.

For instance, in today’s issue of Granma, the official propaganda sheet of the regime, there are no fewer than three articles on the campaign, highlighting fumigation activity in Havana as well as in other provinces.

And in one of the articles there is an unusual admission by one of the officials in charge of the campaign in the Cerro neighbourhood in Havana: the task is so huge, there are not enough supervisors to go around.

In the meantime, check out some photographs posted by Val Prieto at Babalu about one likely source of the epidemic.