TEGUGLUCIPA — Armed with brooms, spades and hoes, Hondurans by the thousands took part in a day of national mobilization to try and eradicate mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus, the government said.
Some 200,000 residents of this Central American nation spent on Saturday ridding homes and gardens of standing water and fumigating areas suspected of harboring larvae from the virus-carrying mosquito.
Although the symptoms associated with Zika virus are relatively mild, the scourge currently sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean is suspected of causing severe birth defects in newborns and has been linked to neurological ailments affecting adults.
Honduras, which earlier this week declared a state of emergency because of the rapidly spreading virus, now has some 4,400 confirmed cases of Zika since mid-December.
President Juan Orlando Hernandez has allocated an initial tranche of $10 million in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.
“The data is clear: each day, the number of cases of this terrible illness increases,” Hernandez said on Saturday as the massive eradication effort got underway.
Hernandez urged his countrymen to be fully “conscious of the problem that we’re confronting.”
Hondurans are called upon “to unite against Zika, our common enemy,” he added.
Zika causes flu-like symptoms and a rash, and is so mild that it goes undetected in 70 to 80 percent of cases.
There is currently no specific treatment for Zika and no way to prevent it other than avoiding mosquito bites. — AFP
