UN warns LatAm: Basic sanitation crucial to combat Zika
To combat the Zika virus effectively, the UN has warned Latin American countries that improving basic water and sanitation services may be the best answer.
"We can engineer sterile mosquitos or use sophisticated internet tools to map data globally, but we should not forget that today 100mn people in Latin America still lack access to hygienic sanitation systems and 70mn people lack piped water in their places of residence," the UN's Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Léo Heller, said in a release.
"The most effective way to tackle this problem is to improve the failing services," he added. "Governments in the region must speed up the improvement of water and sanitation conditions, in particular for the most vulnerable populations, in order to save lives in the face of this unfolding global health crisis."
Where people do not have access to safely managed water services, they tend to store water in unsafe ways that attract mosquitos, said Leilani Farha, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing.
"In addition, poor sanitation systems where wastewater flows through open channels and is disposed of in unsafe pits leads to stagnant water and unfit housing – a perfect habitat for breeding mosquitos," she said.
The statements issued by the UN experts echo much of what BNamericas previously reported about containing the spread of Zika.
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