Brazil street carnival with the fears of Zika virus looming large

#brazil #ZikaVirus #mosquitoes #microcephaly #streetcarnival Medics have warned that Brazil's nationwide street carnivals could, this year, turn into an 'explosive cocktail' that could increase the pace of spread of the Zika virus. The combination of huge crowds of people wearing little clothing and with rain gathering on rubbish-filled streets will put participants in the celebrations at high risk.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 4 February 2016.

Moreover, due to the arrival of large number of tourist, there is also a risk of them becoming infected with Zika and carrying it to their home countries. There is a genuine risk of people getting infected with the disease and spreading and proliferating it around the globe.
The problem is that there will be large concentrations of people wearing skimpy clothing and forgetting to put on insect repellent - they will be more susceptible to being bitten by mosquitoes. And, in case it rains, the rain water combined with larger than usual amounts of rubbish on the streets will be ideal for the mosquitoes to breed.
In the opinion of health officials, over 100,000 people have been exposed to the Zika virus in Recife, the area which has seen the highest number of cases. However, carnival celebrations in the area and all over the country are continuing normally as planned.
So far, in the last four months, around 4,000 cases have been recorded in Brazil where the mosquito-borne Zika virus might have resulted in microcephaly in infants. The effect of the virus is to give rise to an abnormally small head in newborns and is associated with various disorders including decreased brain development.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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