The Brazilian authorities "announced plans to prevent the spread of the Zika virus during the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games later this year," according to the BBC.
An outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease -- which is being linked to severe birth defects -- "has caused growing concern in Brazil and abroad."
Inspections of Olympic facilities "will begin four months before the Games to get rid of mosquito breeding grounds."
Daily sweeps "will also take place during the Games."
The Brazilian health ministry said that "it is also banking on the fact that the Games are taking place in the cooler, drier month of August when mosquitoes are far less evident and there are considerably fewer cases of mosquito-borne viruses" (BBC, 1/24). TRAVEL's Roshina Jowaheer wrote health officials "warned pregnant tourists to avoid travelling to Brazil for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics after an outbreak of the Zika virus."
Marcos Espinal, head of the Pan American Health Organization's communicable diseases department, said that "travel restrictions will not stop the spread of Zika."
He said, "It's a mosquito that is endemic in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the population of the Americas was not exposed to the virus, so there's no immunity to it" (TRAVEL, 1/23).
