Castro suffers bug bite infection

HAVANA -- Out of the public eye for more than a week, President Fidel Castro told Cubans in a letter published Wednesday that he is recovering from a serious infection caused by a bug bite on his left leg.

"I am fine, dear compatriots, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of the revolution," the 76-year-old leader wrote in the letter, entitled "Chronicle of Repose" and published on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma.

The letter was the first public word about Castro's current illness since Saturday, when he excused himself from a session of the National Assembly, Cuba's unicameral parliament, saying doctors had ordered him to rest after an unspecified injury in his leg.

The health of Castro, who is regularly seen in public several times a week, is a constant source of speculation by Cuba watchers. Persistent rumors of ailments -- including prostate cancer, heart troubles, Parkinson's disease and stroke -- have circulated for years.

Castro's designated successor is his 71-year-old brother, Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister.

Castro, who has ruled Cuba for nearly 44 years, said in the letter that the infection began after he started scratching a bug bite on the lower part of his left leg the night of Dec. 16.

Castro said he followed doctors' instructions to keep the leg elevated and apply cold compresses when resting and continued with his regular work schedule. But by the morning of Dec. 19 the bite was bothering him more.

Doctors informed him that he had a staphylococcus infection and ordered more cold compresses, antibiotics and -- to his dismay -- bed rest.

"I didn't have any other alternative but to resign myself," wrote Castro. He begrudgingly then canceled a Friday night appearance at the anniversary celebration of the Federation of University Students and a Saturday morning session of the National Assembly.

"It was my duty to protect my beloved left leg," he wrote. "With it, I have practiced many sports, including soccer, have run in races, jumped, swam, climbed mountains."

"It had never betrayed me," the Cuban leader wrote of his left leg. "I couldn't betray it now."

Doctors who initially prescribed three or four days of bed rest later extended that to a week but now "it will be a very short time before my left leg is totally new again," Castro wrote.

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