Brazil wages war against Zika Virus
Brazil deploys military to battle mosquito that carries Zika
Army soldiers in Rio de Janeiro set up a banner that reads in Portuguese “A mosquito is not stronger than a whole country.”
SAO PAULO, Brazil — More than 200,000 troops fanned out across Brazil on Saturday to raise awareness about the mosquito that spreads the Zika virus, which has been linked to an upsurge in birth defects.
Aiming to reach 3 million families in a single day, soldiers visited homes, parks and shopping malls in 350 cities, passing out pamphlets with instructions on how to prevent the accumulation of stagnant water, where the Aedes aegypti mosquito breeds. Today’s effort, branded #ZikaZero, is part of a larger campaign by public health officials and the military to inspect buildings for stagnant water and treat potential breeding grounds with insecticides.
Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Castro, said Friday that the government is “absolutely sure” that Zika is behind the country’s recent jump in cases of microcephaly, a condition where babies are born with unusually small heads. According to official statistics, 41 cases of microcephaly have been tied to Zika, and more than 3,800 cases are still being investigated. As many as 1.5 million Brazilians may have been infected with the Zika virus.
Although the World Health Organization has yet to establish a definitive link between the virus and the rare birth defect, it is advising pregnant women to consider delaying travel to Brazil and other Latin American countries where the virus has spread. The outbreak has also raised questions over the safety of tourists and athletes at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this August.
Highlighting these concerns, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff joined health officials in Rio as they swept through the cinder block shacks of a favela — one of the country’s many informal settlements typically marked by poor infrastructure and scant public services. Because they allow standing water to collect, these are ideal conditions for the Aedes aegypti to reproduce.
“In the past we won the war against yellow fever, and we are going to win the war against the Zika virus,” Rousseff told reporters. “We’re trying to catch up after decades of abandonment in terms of sanitation.”
