Comment on For Brazil's Carnival fans, even Zika can't stop the party

For Brazil's Carnival fans, even Zika can't stop the party

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian Carnival could be called a hungry mosquito's dream — five days of non-stop street parties that bring together millions of revelers in an inviting mass of bare ankles, uncovered legs and denuded torsos. Latin America's largest country is mired in its worst recession in generations, impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff are looming, a snowballing corruption investigation of the state oil company has taken down key political figures and rising unemployment and inflation are hurting the pocketbooks of average people. [...] many Brazilians say they are inured to the vagaries of a boom-and-bust economy, unfazed by the near constant stream of corruption scandals and have long lived amid outbreaks of dengue, another virus transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads Zika. Health workers will be deployed to many of the city's more than 500 street parties, or "blocos," where thousands of revelers defy the Southern Hemisphere midsummer sun to drink, dance, sweat and rub shoulders — and other body parts. Regina Rodrigues Alves, who hawks kitty-ear tiaras, pirate eye patches, made-in-China plastic crowns and other Carnival essentials at a stand in Rio's beachfront Ipanema neighborhood, says sales have been appreciably down from last year.

 

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