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Dengue, a major threat

Raquel Sierra

Havana.- "Fumigators are coming in the morning and in the evening. The situation seems to be very serious", said Elsa Peña, a 56-year-old nurse living in Havana. Her view is shared by many.

Increased air and ground fumigation campaigns and household visits have made people realize that dengue is posing a major threat. This is an acute infectious disease and its vector is the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Peña has, for weeks, been visiting homes in her neighborhood, asking people if they have had fever. When she detects a case, she gets back five days later for a blood test, the most effective way of diagnosing the disease.

Specialized staff members check water deposits and warn people about the need to wash "spiritual glasses", closely connected with an African religion that is practiced throughout the island. "I have my beliefs, but I know uncovered glasses full of water provide ideal breeding place for the mosquito. We need to wash these glasses and brush rims carefully", she added.

Local officials in El Cerro municipality, where the current outbreak first appeared, indicated that 68 percent of reported cases live in houses where there are spiritual glasses. They announced that four people have died and 6,000 cases have been diagnosed in ten out of 14 provinces. "As the disease threatens to further expand, most patients are being hospitalized. They are not being isolated (using mosquito nets)", they regretted.

Dengue

Some government officials and many ordinary citizens are actually worry, because dengue can kill.

The first large-scale epidemic of hemorrhagic dengue in the Western Hemisphere occurred in Cuba in 1981. There were then 344,203 cases (type 2) and 158 deaths, including 101 in children under 15.

In early 1997, the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba was hit by the epidemic. A total of 17,114 clinical cases were reported, with 205 suffering from hemorrhagic dengue and 12 getting killed.

There were no reports in 1998 and 1999, but a short episode was seen in 2000 in Havana, where 138 cases were determined. Early detection and vector control measures made it possible to eradicate it really fast.

A year later, the capital city was hit again. The situation was brought under control thanks to heavy investments by the State.

Dengue, including its most serious manifestation (hemorrhagic dengue), has been posing a growing problem on the American continent.

In the case of classical dengue, the symptoms include fever, headache, loss of taste and appetite, a rash on the chest and legs, nausea and vomit. Hemorrhagic dengue can cause death and its symptoms also cover stomachache, pale, cold, sticky skin, and nasal and mouth bleeding.

Professor Eric Martínez Torres, who wrote a book entitled Dengue in Cuba, noted that the disease is characterized by fever, severe joint pain and a rash.

There are four different types. Humans are natural hosts. Unlike cold, dengue does not attack the respiratory system (no rhinitis or cough), but the digestive apparatus (vomit and abdominal pain). Shock can lead to death, he emphasized.

While any child or grownup can develop the disease, studies have revealed that it usually affects white, well-fed people.

Experts believe that the incidence rate is on the upswing in most countries and that the epidemic is occurring in all regions of this hemisphere. Outbreaks have, so far this year, been reported in Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

An enemy

Studies showed that the mosquito looks for the most unsuspected places to deposit eggs. Larvae are born seven days afterwards. If there is no water available, the eggs can wait for a whole year.

You can not imagine where it can hide. We used to believe that its habitat was quiet water only. "It has been found, however, in fountains and even inside water taps", Peña stressed.

"Some people say that the mosquito has become increasingly "intelligent". It flies close to the level of the ground, is difficult to detect and hides mostly in the dark", said a 50-year-old resident in Havana, who is very prone to mosquito bites.

Aedes aegypti can be easily identified because it has white stripes in legs. As there are not enough specialized staff members, state-run company workers are being involved in prevention and control activities, local press reports indicated.

The eradication campaign is gaining momentum. There are television spots highlighting the need to destroy breeding places and reports warning about hygiene measures and specific situations such as that of the Colón Cemetery. Many foci have resulted from negligence and carelessness there.

Public-health officials indicated that there are wards for dengue patients only in all hospitals in Havana. "This is top priority now. We are taking intensive diagnosis and treatment courses", an internal-medicine specialist told WFS.

- Data show that the first dengue outbreaks in the world were reported in Africa, the Americas and Asia as far back as 1779.

- High global temperatures due to climate change are expected to shorten the mosquito incubation period by 10 to 15 days in the not-so-distant future.

A difficult time for pre-school education

María del Pilar Ortiz

Havana.- Elena, a switchboard operator at the Cuban Telecommunications Corporation, and her husband Francisco had to wait over 18 months to get their two-year-old son Alberto accepted at a day-care center.

They live in Centro Habana, one of the most densely populated municipalities in the capital city. Such facilities do not meet current demand there.

"When you do not get your application confirmed in a one-year period, it is virtually impossible to succeed in the process", said Elena. Her 73-year-old mother had been looking after her 40-pound, extremely active boy. There came a time when she did not manage to control him in any way.

Local officials told Elena that there were around 2,000 women in her district facing a similar problem. The most critical situation is seen in 10 de Octubre and Cerro's Towns, and the most favorable one in Plaza, where all working mothers' children in the three- to five-year bracket have such a facility available.

Elena was feeling hopeless and fearing she would endure the same situation as her officemate Mireya, whose daughter Amanda was accepted at a day-care center when she was already going to kindergarten.

Although the Cuban institutional pre-education system covers the entire country, it fails to meet growing needs.

Local officials indicated that only 37 percent of applications have been covered this year. "We are giving priority to women working in educational, health-care and research centers", they added.

The pre-school subsystem involves around 146,000 children at 1,112 day-care centers all over the island. There are 421 just in Havana.

Children are given educational, medical, dental and nursing care at these institutions. University graduates and students make up 80 percent of staff members.

Nevertheless, low wages and bad working conditions make many workers leave these centers. There is critical shortage of caretakers, cooks and cleaning staff. Although wages have been raised, the problem remains.

"When the grandmother or any other family member can not look after the baby, parents usually recruit a babysitter who works at home and asks for 100 to 200 pesos (five to 10 dollars) a month", a working woman told WFS.

"When my daughter was two years old, I decided to try this modality to be able to start working again, said Mireya. Amanda grew up in a nice atmosphere and learnt a lot", she added.

"The number of babysitters has steadily grown. I love them because they look after children much better than at day-care centers", Doris stressed.

"When her son Omar was 45 days old, she found a lady who looked after him until he was five. She taught him songs and good manners. She would keep him until late at night whenever it was necessary", she recalled.

Vilma (35) recruited a neighbor until her son Ramón was two years old and later transferred him to a center. "They are better educated there", she noted.

As babysitters look after children of different ages, their intellectual development can be negatively affected. State-operated institutions, on the other hand, promote it as much as possible, she emphasized.

Some mothers do not like these centers because respiratory and parasitic diseases abound. "I think this has to do with early age rather than with care", Vilma indicated.

Daysi lives in Arroyo Naranjo municipality. Her six-year-old son Jonathan already goes to school, but her two-year-old son Alejandro is still waiting for a day-care center. She is a single mother working in a sector that has not been given priority. "As I can not pay a babysitter, I take him to my aunt's or ask her to come here. She is 67 already. I would not be able to go to work otherwise", she regretted.

"I request a leave when she can not help me. I hope my problem will be solved next month. If it is not, I will have to quit my job and probably lose the right to a boarding school for Jonathan", she stressed.

The revolutionary government has, since 1959, sought to boost educational development in the country. The first day-care centers were established on April 10, 1961 to promote women's access to the labor market. Some crèches were also refurbished at the time.

A year later, several mansions that had been owned by wealthy people leaving the country for good were handed over to the Federation of Cuban Women and turned into day-care centers. This made the number of facilities grow to total 120 in late 1962 and 364 in 1963.

Despite government efforts, these institutions do not have all the teaching materials, toys and implements they require.

"We rely on family support for this purpose, a center director told WFS. Although wages have been raised, they do not cover basic needs", she added.

In the early 1990s, when the economic crisis reached bottom, the number of construction projects dropped, and an alternative program (Children's Education) was put together.

Highly assessed by the United Nations Children's Fund, it is a non-institutionalized educational modality only available in the island.

While maternity leave had in the past covered a three-month period, it now covers 12 months. The state-promoted health-care policy highlights the need to prolong breast feeding as much as possible.

Despite ups and down, Cuba has taken the lead in this type of education in Latin America. Most countries in the region exhibit inadequate coverage and high costs and dropout rates.

Elena's son has just been admitted at a day-care center and he will hopefully spend there the next four years. "But, how many mothers will have to keep on waiting for such an opportunity?", she wondered.

A mother's "touch"

Dalia Acosta

Havana.- Over 30 years have elapsed since Carlos' mother, Amelia, last beat him. This 43-year-old Cuban does no longer look like the rebel teenager he used to be. He is always looking for love, but can not stand his mother's hands on him.

"Sometimes she tells me: My son!, but I can not even feel her close to me. I think she is going to hit me. It is a very strong feeling", he told WFS.

"I do not know when it all began and the reason for it. Her beatings come to my mind quite often. They came to an end when I was strong enough to grab her by her hands and not let her beat me", he added.

Although he was born and raised in a violent atmosphere, he managed to break away with his family tradition and not to re-produce the cycle. He says he is today a peaceful man, tries to avoid any aggressive action, and loves to look at the sea for hours.

The life of this strong, sad-looking, wrinkled man could have been different. He could have become a criminal and, probably, a prisoner.

He could have also grown in a harmonious home and studied at a university. He did not actually go that far, however. He was trained as an intermediate-level technician and is a self-employed handyman.

He has learnt several trades (electrician, mason and plumber) and always has some work to do. "There are many people like me out there, but they are really abusive. They want to finish fast and make a lot of money. I am not like that," he stressed.

Common situations

Carlos' life is probably very similar to that of many other people all over the world, including Cuba: mothers abusing their sons. Children under this situation are very likely to become marginal, violent, abusive men.

Unlike other countries of the world, in Cuba there are no reports of forced marriages, genital mutilation, child labor, sexual exploitation and trafficking in children. Minors have access to health care and education, and are free from gender discrimination here.

A study by Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital in Havana, which involved 81 abused children, showed that most mistreatment comes from mothers (44.5 percent), fathers (25.9 percent) and grandparents (7.4 percent).

Abuse goes from carelessness to injury, and results mainly from unwanted pregnancy, women's overload, fathers' abandonment, poor economic conditions and dysfunctional families.

Dr. Cristóbal Martínez, a therapist, full professor of Psychiatry and coordinator of the Family Violence Section at the Latin American Psychiatric Association, defines child abuse as the exertion of force by parents, brothers and sisters, and other people against children as a way to punish or harm them.

In 2001, he wrote a book entitled Family Health indicating that children are abused when their needs are not met. They include food, health care, protection, affection and care.

"The exact number of abused children and teenagers in the world is not known, because they are mistreated mostly at home," he noted.

Around 275 million children are being exposed to domestic violence, according to a report launched on August 1 by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Body Shop, an international network involving over 2,000 establishments.

Those who are raised in violent homes are very likely to show low performance at school and poor inter-personal relations, while suffering from depression and anxiety. Domestic violence is closely related to teenage pregnancy, illicit drug consumption and crime.

On the other hand, a factor that makes it possible to predict the re-production of violence - as victimizers or victims - is to have grown in an abuse-marked home. Women are most likely to be abused by their husbands if the latter were mistreated when they were children or witnessed acts of violence against their mothers, the document emphasized.

Many abusive fathers were illtreated in their childhood or learnt that physical punishment was a teaching method, Martínez also wrote in his book. The text includes findings of several research works.

Fortunately, violence does not always generate violence. Cuban psychiatrist María de la Concepción Galiano indicated that some people are "resilient", that is, capable of overcoming stress-causing situations. They are "stress-resistant", she stated.

Individual protection factors have been identified. They include specific personality traits, self-esteem and self-control, she added.

Life changes

Carlos can not explain how he has been able to change his life so radically. Perhaps, this has been due to his tender father's grandparents, the influence of an uncle who loved underwater fishing or his father himself, who most of the time believed the schoolteacher was right.

Gone is the time when he used to start a row for any reason and was a gang member. All this came to an end when he completed his studies at a pre-university institute, was trained as an intermediate-level technician, began working and had a son.

"My son is already a teenager. He acts like any other person of his age, but he is definitely not like me! I have done my best to give him a different life, and I think I have succeeded. Although he lives with his mother, we get along just fine", he remarked.

Amelia is now very old, but still has a strong personality. " She is my mother and I have to take care of and accompany her. That is life, is it not?", he said.

Although he often talks about his private life with friends, there are many things only Amelia and Carlos actually know. They are deep inside him and come back to his mind at times of silence, when he would rather not think, but just look at the sea.

Hurricane Ernesto's rain

By Raquel Sierra

Havana.- Fortunately, hurricane Ernesto did not cause serious damage and brought along heavy rains that helped increase water volumes at Cuban dams in late August.

It came in by the southern coast of the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba and moved away by the northern coast of the central province of Ciego de Ávila, with winds close to 75 kilometers per hour.

"It only helped alleviate drough", said Elena Domínguez, a worker at a state-operated company in Havana.

As usual, the local early-warning system was activated, residents in low-lying areas and houses in poor condition were evacuated, cattle heads were taken to safe places, and weather forecasts were constantly updated.

Experts indicated that small hurricanes can cause more damage than big ones, because most disaster situations result from heavy rains rather than from strong winds and encroachments of the sea.

Trained in preparedness strategies, the local population bought additional food supplies and candles, and boiled water.

"We have learnt to deal with crisis situations. In some instances, we have been over four days without electricity, gas and water supply", Elena stressed.

Some 400,000 people were evacuated to avoid fatalities due to floods and building collapse.

While 1,204 shelters were established, 80 percent of evacuees moved to family and neighbors' houses and received additional supplies from State institutions.

The hurricane's impact on the east included coastal damage, building collapse and river swelling. Government officials said that hurricanes Dennis, Rita and Wilma had caused damages for 1.3 billion dollar in 2005.

Tropical storms hit small island states every year, causing significant damage and fatalities, because there is no information and preparedness system in place.

Welcome rains

While heavy rains in the east helped increase water volumes at local dams, they caused floods in Baracoa, the first city founded by the Spaniards in the island.

Persistent rainfall in Santiago de Cuba made reservoirs stand at 99 percent of their storage capacity.

This province had been drought-stricken for years. Water supply to the population and agricultural and industrial projects will certainly get better.

We have seen critical water shortage here in the last couple of years, said Aurelia Domínguez, a resident in the province capital.

Holguín is another province hit by drought in the east, but just a few showers were seen there during the hurricane, averaging 43 millimeters of rainfall.

Local dams now store 2.7 million cubic meters of water and stand at 77 percent of their capacities.

Most people in Santa Cruz del Sur, a district in Camagüey province, were evacuated. Over 3,000 local residents got killed in November 1932 there due to a natural disaster.

Rainfall in Las Tunas averaged 10 millimeters and helped local dams reach 78 percent of their capacities.

Government reports indicated that hurricane-associated rains increased overall water volume at Cuban dams by 113 million cubic meters. Luis Cantero, a specialist at the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, announced that they now stand at 73.9 percent on average.

Hurricanes

Dr. José Rubiera, head of the Weather Forecast Department at the National Institute of Meteorology, said that most hurricanes occur after late August. Specific atmospheric conditions have limited hurricane formation and development in the last three months, he added.

"Although there have been five hurricanes so far this year, the most dangerous period is still to come," he warned. "There are no phenomena under formation in the region right now, he announced. Nevertheless, experts at local radar stations that have been modernized in the last two years are on the alert", he stressed.

When the hurricane season began last June, experts indicated that 15 tropical storms (including nine hurricanes) were expected to hit the region. One of these hurricanes is very likely to affect Cuba, they anticipated.

Experts classify tropical storms depending on wind intensity. A tropical depression is an organized cloud system with maximum winds of up to 62 kilometers per hour. It is considered a hurricane under formation. A tropical storm has maximum winds ranging from 62 to 118 kilometers per hour.

A hurricane is the most serious phenomenon, with winds exceeding 119 kilometers per hour. It can cause torrential rains.

Tropical storms and hurricanes have, for centuries, been named. It was in 1953 that women's names began to be used, in alphabetical order. In 1978, men's names started to be used in the Pacific and one year later in the Atlantic region.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reviews the name list proposed by member states in English, French and Spanish. Men and women's names are alternatively used every year.

Migrant women

By Sara Más

Havana.- The number of migrant women has been growing in Cuba, just as in any other country of the region and the rest of the world, local experts indicated.

International trends are present in Cuba, stated Antonio Aja Díaz, a researcher at the University of Havana's Migration Study Center. He made the statement during the launching of the 2006 World Population Report, at the United Nations office in the island.

There has been a process of feminization of migration in Cuba, especially after the early 1990s, when an economic crisis broke out.

"While most people leaving the country temporarily or permanently had in the past lived in Havana, they now leave from other provinces as well", stressed Consuelo Martín, a Center's psychologist and researcher. "The list of countries of destination now includes Europe, Central America, Venezuela and Mexico", she added.

Women make up 20 percent of illegal migrants and men, the remaining 80 percent. "The former, however, tend to use safer means to minimize risks, as they usually take children with them", Martín noted.

The number of migrant women in the 15- to 24-year bracket is on the upswing. There are more migrant girls than boys in the population group under 15. This came from a survey Martín has conducted since early 1995, right after the 1994 U.S.-Cuba migration agreement came into force.

Most respondents said they had decided to leave the country for economic reasons. Many women argued they had made the decision for family reunification, and men saw migrating as a way of bypassing law. The overwhelming majority of emigrants are teachers, medical doctors and office clerks.

Migration in Cuba has been a historical process conditioned by economic, political, legal, family, psychological, social and juncture-specific factors. Consideration should be given to the fact that this issue has been highly politicized after Fidel Castro took over in 1959, experts stressed.

In the case of illegal migrants, the juncture-specific factor is very important, not only due to weather conditions, but also due to the political context in which U.S.-Cuba relations have developed. "The United States remains the No. 1 recipient country and the Cuban government's main adversary", Aja indicated.

He added that the United States has imposed a selective migration process on the island.

Although there are women leaving, most emigrants are white, young men (university graduates and intermediate-level technicians).

Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, director of the National Office of Statistics' Population and Development Study Center, is of the view that the international debate over the issue has been politicized. "Respect for migrants' human rights is a key issue that still needs to be addressed by generating and recipient countries" he remarked.

These will be some of main topics to be reviewed at the 1st United Nations High-Level Meeting on International Migration and Development, which will be held on September 14-15, in New York.

Participants in the event will also discuss the impact of migration on the economy and society, measures to secure respect for and protection of human rights of migrant people, capacity building, and best practices, announced Susan McDade, UN chief coordinator in Cuba.

Published since 1978, the Annual Population Report has this year included a supplement on young migrants. It is a compendium of first-person-singular narrations by ten boys and girls who decided to emigrate for various reasons, Alfonso Farnós said at the report presentation ceremony. Farnós is the UNFPA assistant representative in Havana.

"Migrant women's rights are not usually respected. These women send more money to their countries of origin than men do, he added. They also make significant cultural contributions," he concluded.

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean, International News Agency, offers this weekly service. No reproduction without authorization. Any comment o suggestion please contact us: semlac@redsemlac.net