Corruption Revealed in Anti-Dengue Campaign

HAVANA TIMES — The insecticide used for fumigating Cuban homes against the dengue-causing Aedes aegypti mosquito is being systematically stolen by those working in that national health campaign, reported the Café Fuerte website today.

“What they often do is fumigate homes using only oil, because they’ve been selling the insecticide,” said one resident to CaféFuerte in Havana.

“Sometimes you realize that they they’re only filling your house with smoke that doesn’t have the poison,” said a housewife in Camagüey Province. “They’re selling all the equipment, the flashlights, and insecticide – even their uniforms.”

According to the report, fumigators sell small bottles of liquid insecticide at the price of 10 Cuban pesos as ant and roach poison, in that way making up to 120 percent above their monthly salary.

Corruption by crews has spread outside of the capital, with some residents in Camaguey — a main center of a dengue outbreak — considering the lack of rigor in fumigation and corruption having contributed to the proliferation of mosquitoes there.