Prestigious experts attend International Course on Dengue in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 7 (ACN) Renowned Cuban and foreign experts will meet from this Monday until the 18th of this month at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí (IPK) in Havana, to make an update on the current situation of dengue and other arbovirosis.

The objective of the XV International Dengue Course is that doctors, virologists, immunologists, sociologists, epidemiologists, entomologists, health administrators, among other participants, along with professors from national and international institutions, discuss the most relevant and current aspects of diseases transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which includes Zika, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever.

According to the IPK's website, experts from the Pan American and World Health Organizations (PAHO / WHO), among them Sylvain Aldighieri, Mathieu Bangert, Haroldo Becerra, Marcos Espinal, Florence Fouques, Leticia Franco and Gamaliel Gutiérrez confirmed their participation.

Representatives from Canada, Colombia, Argentina, the United States, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, Venezuela, Brazil and Switzerland will attend the forum, as well as prestigious professors and collaborators from IPK, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, The University of Havana, and the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba.

Topics include clinical management of patients, vector control, advances in pathogenesis research, vaccines, antivirals, individual genetics, viruses and vector, and new control tools, refers the source.

Cuban and foreign participants will also explore the influence of climate change on the emergence of mosquito-borne diseases of the genus Aedes and the confrontation of outbreaks.

Sponsored by the Cuban Society of Microbiology and Parasitology, Minsap and PAHO / WHO, the event is celebrated 30 years after the first meeting of this type and as part of the activities for the 80th anniversary of the IPK, PAHO / WHO for the Study of Dengue and its Vector.

Although the epidemiological situation of Cuba has a favorable behavior compared to similar previous stages, Minsap specialists warn that these diseases are more likely to spread with increasing temperatures and rains.

As of 2017 in Cuba there have been no cases of chikungunya or yellow fever, but the reappearance and increase in several areas of Latin America and Africa trigger the alarms in the national territory, adds the digital site of the IPK.

For this reason, they insist on redoubled efforts in the control of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, transmitting agent of said arbovirosis.