Sesame Street's Elmo has long taught kids the alphabet. Now, the much-beloved character will educate children in Latin America and the Caribbean about avoiding mosquito bites and stopping the spread of Zika.
The famous red Muppet will appear in two 30-second public service announcements created in English, Spanish and Portuguese. There are no plans yet to show them in the USA.
In one video, the Muppets show how to prevent mosquito bites by wearing long sleeves and pants and using insect repellent and door and window screens.
“If the mosquito doesn’t bite," they say, "goodbye Zika.”
In the other video, Elmo and Raya, a teal-colored female Muppet, talk about how to fight the mosquitoes that spread Zika, such as by getting rid of standing water and covering trash containers.
Eliminating the standing water where mosquitoes breed is "our most important tool to combat Zika," said Marcos Espinal, director of communicable diseases at the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, which helped produce the videos.
"Since these mosquitoes live in and around houses, this will take a concerted effort with intensified community engagement to reduce the number of mosquitoes in the Americas," Espinal said. "We are also looking urgently at improving control methods including insecticides and other technologies."
This isn't the first time Elmo has tackled health issues. The Muppets talked about exercise and healthy eating with first lady Michelle Obama.
Vaccines also came up: Elmo teamed up with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to talk about the shots last year. The Pan American Health Organization gave Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational group that produces Sesame Street, its 2009 Champion of Health award for its vaccine advocacy.
Amesh Adalja, a senior associate at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he hopes the new videos help kids get the message, even if Elmo doesn't take his own advice about wearing long sleeves and pants.
After all, Elmo wears no clothes.
