I have dengue, a vile and potentially life-threatening virus given to me by an Aedes mosquito. For good reason, it used to be called breakbone fever.

It’s not the first time. I last felt my eyes swell and my joints being crushed five years ago, almost to the day. Dengue is common in Cuba, increasingly so since the government ran out of the money to fumigate for mosquitos. The first time was worse – so far. It arrived like a cloud of poison gas; I barely got up the stairs before collapsing. I was more naive then and what followed, in the fug of fever, taught me a lot about my Cuban family and the Cuban state.

People are selling water door to door. We’re hearing of dysentery. How far away is cholera?

People are selling water door to door. We’re hearing of dysentery. How far away is cholera?

Back in 2021, my wife, who was pregnant at the time, was swiftly removed from my presence and Maria, our brilliant local doctor, sent in. Cuba was famed for having more than nine doctors per 1,000 patients, three times that of the US or UK, so........

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