'It's going to hit the poorest people': Zika outbreak feared on the Texas border

When Patricia Pena hosted a Zika awareness class near the Texas border with Mexico on Tuesday, only four people showed up.

“Even though there’s been a lot of announcements on TV about it and how to protect yourself, families are still very naive when it comes to the information on Zika,” said Pena, who works with La Frontera Ministries, a community nonprofit.

While Zika cases in south Florida drew most of the headlines last year, the mosquito-borne virus also struck in the Rio Grande valley. As mosquito season ramps up again, activists and health workers fear that the region is at risk of an outbreak.

More than 1.3 million people live in the Valley, many in deprived neighbourhoods known as colonias, where conditions are ripe for mosquitoes to breed: sprawling settlements limit the effectiveness of spraying, standing water is common, and many houses lack window screens or air-conditioning.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/23/zika-outbreak-rio-grande-valley-texas-border-health