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 Alarm over the virus, linked to a rising number of mental birth
defects among children of mothers infected by it, comes two weeks
before nationwide Carnival celebrations, a highlight of Brazil's
tourism calendar.
It also comes 200 days before Rio de Janeiro hosts the opening
ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics, the first in South America.
Following a warning by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention last week that pregnant women should not travel to 14
countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America where
the virus has spread, Brazil's health ministry said pregnant women
should seek medical advice before visiting.
Municipal authorities in São Paulo, the country's biggest city, said
they had distributed faster testing materials to help public
hospitals identify patients infected with dengue, another
mosquito-borne virus whose outbreaks have worsened in recent years.
Despite the growing alarm, local officials in the run-up to the
Olympics and Carnival say current measures to prevent the spread of
Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses should be enough to ensure
that tourists and locals minimize the chance of infection.
Cities across Brazil are working to educate residents about the
dangers of pooled and stagnant water, where mosquitoes reproduce,
and in some cases have targeted breeding areas with insecticides.
Efforts are particularly intense in the northeast, where most
infections and Zika-related birth defects are concentrated.
In Rio, more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the south of the
worst-affected regions, Olympic and tourism officials say they are
heeding government warnings but see no signs of trip cancellations
or of disruption to the Games, which begin Aug. 5.
"The Olympic and Paralympic venues will be inspected on a daily
basis," said Philip Wilkinson, a spokesman for Rio 2016, adding that
organizers are following guidance from local and federal health
officials. He noted that the August weather, near the end of the
local winter, will be less propitious for mosquitoes than if the
games were held in the summer.
Expected to attract as many as 500,000 foreign visitors to Rio, the
Olympics are small compared with the tourism generated annually in
the city and across the country by Carnival.
Even in the state of Pernambuco, the epicenter of the Zika outbreak
and a historic hub of Carnival revelry, officials said tourism has
not been hit.
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"There are at least as many reservations as last year and in the
case of some hotels even more," said Alexandre Albuquerque, a
spokesman for the state tourism secretary. He said Carnival, which
this year starts the first week of February, attracted 1.5 million
tourists last year.
Still, authorities across Brazil are reminding visitors to take
precautions, such as using insect repellent and long sleeves to
avoid mosquito bites.
Brazil's health ministry in November confirmed the Zika virus was
linked to a fetal deformation known as microcephaly, in which
infants are born with smaller-than-usual brains.
Since October, at least 3,500 suspected cases of microcephaly have
been reported by the health ministry, over 30 times more than had
been reported each year since 2010.
The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which
is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya
viruses.
Health experts are unsure why the virus has spread so rapidly in
Brazil, but warn that big tourism events may provide the virus with
opportunities to multiply and spread to other parts of the world.
Last week, U.S. health authorities confirmed the birth of a baby
with microcephaly in Hawaii. The mother, they said, had been
infected with the Zika virus while visiting Brazil last year.
(Additional reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)
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