Zika

From the Brazilian Backlands to Global Threat

Debora Diniz, Diane Grosklaus Whitty

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786991614
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Winner of the 2017 Jabuti Book Prize The Zika virus is devastating lives and communities. Children across the Americas are being born with severe disabilities because of it. Yet during the desolating outbreak, Brazil played host to both the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, leading many to suspect that the true impact of the virus has been subject to a cover-up of international proportions. Beginning in the northeast, where the devastation has been most felt, professor of bioethics and award-winning documentary filmmaker Debora Diniz travels across Brazil tracing the virus's origin and spread. Along the journey she meets a host of fearless families, doctors and scientists uncovering the virus's impact on local communities. In doing so Diniz paints a vivid picture of the Zika epidemic, exposing the Brazilian government's complicity in allowing the virus to spread while championing the efforts of local doctors and mothers who, working together, are raising awareness of the virus and fighting for the rights of children affected by Zika.

NOTES

TELLING THE STORY

1	Congenital Zika syndrome is the more accurate term for the adverse effects of Zika, which include a group of signs and symptoms of which microcephaly is but one feature (BRITO, 2015; CHAN et al., 2016; COSTA et al., 2016; MIRANDA-FILHO et al., 2016). However, most Brazilian women and even the World Health Organization (WHO) continue to use the term “microcephaly.”
2	DINIZ, Zika, 2016.
3	Transcribed from an exchange of messages within a WhatsApp group.
4	BRAGA; VALLE, 2007.
5	MLAKAR et al., 2016.
6	MELO et al., 2016.
7	In February 2016, “acute Zika virus disease” was added to Brazil’s list of diseases and public health events subject to mandatory reporting; included was a special line item for cases involving pregnant women (BRASIL. Ministério da Saúde, 2016a). According to Administrative Ruling no. 104, of January 25, 2011, in turn based on International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005): “A Public Health Emergency of National Concern . . . is an event that presents the risk of spreading disease to more than one state . . . which requires the prioritization of diseases and other public health events subject to immediate rep...