World Surf Contest Coming To Costa Rica's Zika Hotspot

JACO, Costa Rica,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th july,2016) - Next month, international surfers converging on a popular Costa Rican beach for the World Surfing Games will be facing more than big waves and tough competition -- the zone is also a Zika hotspot. But promoters of the August 6-14 event in the Pacific coastal town of Jaco, which is organized by the International Surfing Association, insist there's little to worry about, except for pregnant women. "We have Zika cases, as the whole country does.

People can come to Jaco without any fear," Tobias Murillo, the mayor of the Garabito region that includes Jaco, told AFP.

However health ministry figures show that, of the 238 cases of Zika infection in Costa Rica, 106 of them are in Garabito, making it the worst-hit area of the country. Local authorities have bought equipment to fumigate spots where mosquitos -- the main vector for transmission of the virus -- could accumulate.

They plan to use them just before the surf tournament. Zika can also be transmitted by sex, and has been found to live on in sperm for as long as 93 days, according to a case reported last week in the British medical journal The Lancet.