Brazil's health minister says the country will mobilize some 220,000 troops to battle the mosquito blamed for spreading a virus linked to birth defects, but he also was quoted Tuesday as saying the battle already is being lost.
"The mosquito has been here in Brazil for three decades, and we are badly losing the battle against the mosquito," Folha de S. Paulo newspaper quoted Castro as saying as a crisis group on Zika was meeting in the capital, Brasilia.
Worry about the rapid spread of Zika has expanded across the nation, and the hemisphere beyond.
Repellent has disappeared from many Brazilian pharmacies and prices for the product have tripled or even quadrupled where it's still available in recent weeks since the government announced a suspected link between Zika virus and microcephaly, a rare birth defect that sees babies born with unusually small heads and can cause lasting developmental problems. Nearly 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly have been reported since October, compared with fewer than 150 cases in the country in all of 2014.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised pregnant women to reconsider travel to Brazil and 21 other countries and territories with Zika outbreaks over fears about microcephaly.
Both Brazil's Zika outbreak and the spike in microcephaly have been concentrated in the poor and underdeveloped northeast of the country, though the prosperous southeast, where Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are located, are the second hardest-hit region. Rio de Janeiro will host the Aug. 5-21 Olympic games.
Rio sends Zika fumigators into carnival stadium
Rio de Janeiro sent fumigators Tuesday into the city's carnival stadium, which will also be used for Olympic archery in August, to combat an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
The sight of men in protective overalls and goggles spraying the famous Sambodrome facility was a grim confirmation of just how worried Brazil is becoming that the virus scare will tarnish both the carnival and upcoming Summer Olympics.
The Sambodrome will host Rio's elaborate annual parades on February 7 and 8, and also the archery contest during the Games.
"The concern is very great in all of Rio because it's a city for mega events. During the carnival there'll be crowds of people from different parts of the world and Brazil, which will help the virus get in (... and out)," said Marcos Vinicius Ferreira, spokesman for Rio's health department.
Argentina authorities say they are investigating a possible case of infection by the mosquito-borne Zika virus. It would be a first for the nation that shares a border with Brazil.
Santa Fe Health Department official Andrea Uboldi tells La Red radio that the man is in the city of Rosario and had recently visited Brazil
UN: Zika virus link to small-head condition 'circumstantial'
The World Health Organization says it suspects a link between the mosquito-borne Zika virus and a rare birth defect that gives babies abnormally small heads but says so far the evidence is circumstantial.
... and they were so "Johnny-On-the-Spot" for the Ebola pandemic also.
U.S. health officials are putting out advice to doctors on testing newborns for Zika virus, a tropical infection linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil.
The guidance is for doctors caring for infants born to mothers who traveled to Zika outbreak areas in Latin America or the Caribbean during their pregnancy. link
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is reporting a jump in the number of mosquito-borne Zika virus cases.
Health Secretary Ana Rius says there are 18 confirmed cases, though none involve pregnant women. Brazilian officials have linked the tropical illness to birth defects.
