The Most Influential Animals Of 2016

Zika Mosquitoes

Zika mosquitoes were the talk of the town during the summer of 2016 due to the Rio Olympic Games. Zika is a disease spread by mosquito bites which cause birth defects in children and also causes limpness in the arms and legs. The Zika virus was a huge fear for women competing in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic games because the disease was rampant in that area.

During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, over 600,000 people were infected with the disease. The World Cup shined a light on the issue, even though Zika really became an epidemic in 2016. By June 2016, Zika had infected over 26,000 families in the Rio area alone and fear plagued women competing in the Olympics. But, everyone rested easy due to the fact that many of the mosquitoes died off during Brazil’s winter months, which coincided with the Olympics.