The island of Madeira is 4000 miles from Brazil but it shares more than a language and culture.

The annual Carnival - now underway - is a reminder of the Latin American connection. A far less welcome one is the presence of the Aedes Egypti mosquito.

The insect is the preferred carrier of Zika. So Madeira is doing everything possible to prevent the virus from establishing a presence.

At the forefront of its efforts is a diminutive environmental health officer in her late 50s.

Bela Viveiros has been fighting the Egypti invasion since it started in 2005 and has a love-hate relationship with the mosquito.

"Look at its silvery scales and its stripes" she sighs, showing me the insect under her microscope.

"They look very intelligent and they are - they can adapt very quickly. They are so pretty. But the problems they cause are not pretty at all."

They haven't had a case of Zika here yet. But the link to babies' brains being damaged in the womb has been well publicised.

It's Bela's job, along with 18 other workers at Madeira Health Administration, to seek and destroy the Egypti population.

She works like a detective, setting basic traps for the mosquito and its eggs near areas of stagnant water.

It's only February - not yet mosquito season - but already she's finding breeding grounds in hidden corners.

"They're here" she says, as she lifts up a storm drain and scoops up a cupful of larvae.

Now she will go door to door in the surrounding area, warning homes and hotels to get rid of any standing water - the plates at the bottom of flower pots are a common culprit.

But unlike Latin America, there are no clouds of insecticide. The Madeirans believe their variant of Egypti is from a Venezuelan strain that is showing signs of becoming resistant. The environment matters here and anyway, simple table salt is proving just as effective.

So Bela quickly empties a couple of large bags into the dirty drain water.

But they need everyone onside. Ana Clara Silva, from Madeira’s Public Health Department, runs an island-wide education campaign urging people to report every sighting.

"Climate change means our weather is changing and we have evidence our mosquito season is getting longer. This November and December have been our mildest ever. It means the community of Aedes Eypti has been able to get established. To protect our health we have to control them".

She speaks from experience. In 2012, the same mosquitos caused a Dengue epidemic here - a virus from the same family as Zika. It affected over 2000 people.

It means in Portugal's capital Lisbon, scientists are working hard to deliver an effective test for a virus that regularly shows no symptoms and remains in the blood stream for little more than a week.

"The possibility of a Zika epidemic is real" says Ricardo Parreira, from the Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Already they have had six imported cases of Zika on the Portuguese mainland.

The Deputy Public Health Director Francisco George knows there will be more.

"The links between Portugal and Brazil are very close and that's why these imported cases happen. Everything now depends on mosquito control - if we can do that, the imported cases can't spread".

Madeira is well prepared. But on the European frontline against Zika, it could be an anxious summer as the virus tries to hitch a ride.