‘I would not come if I was them’
Mothers-to-be in Brazil living in fear of Zika virus
Maria Vitoria Alves Bezerac is 13 years old, 32 weeks pregnant and living in fear of the Zika virus.
While American athletes and potential Olympic Games visitors have expressed nervousness about Zika, an illness spread by mosquitoes, the outbreak in Brazil is especially horrifying for expectant and new mothers.
“I am scared,” Bezerac told USA TODAY Sports through a translator outside the Maternidade Escola da UFRJ, Rio’s primary maternity clinic, having traveled that morning from her home in the city’s slum neighborhood of Rocinha. “I heard that babies are being born with serious defects and small brains.”
Newborn microcephaly, a neurological disorder that results in babies having abnormally small heads and suffering from seizures and impaired brain development, splits medical opinion as experts disagree on whether the condition is caused by the Zika virus.
At the Oswaldo Cruz medical center in Recife, women meet with doctors to have their babies examined and learn whether the cries and screams are brought on by the discomfort of microcephaly.
“It is very difficult because every morning, I wake up and I don’t know what to expect,” Jaqueline Vieira said of her 4month-old son, Daniel. “Sometimes he has seizures, sometimes he has spasms, he is always crying. Because of his head and his condition, he is always going to be sick like that.”
Next to Vieira was Hilda Venancio da Silva and her son Mateus, also 4 months old. The first time she heard of microcephaly was when she was told Mateus had the condition — just 30 minutes before he was born.
She met with Angela Rocha, head of the hospital team that first identified the suspected links between Zika and microcephaly. After further research, the World Health Organization and the Brazilian government see strong evi- dence connecting the two.
After the consultation with Rocha, Hilda discussed the way in which Zika has become an international talking point, especially before the Olympics come to Rio de Janeiro in August. “I would say, ‘Don’t come,’ ” Hilda said when asked about the decision international visitors will face this summer. “I would not come if I was them. I had Zika when I was three months’ pregnant, and it was horrible. I would not want any women to go through this agony I have to. If they get it when they are pregnant, their baby will have microcephaly.”
The crisis exposes Brazil’s vast cultural divide between rich and poor. “(Zika) does not choose certain people,” said Renato Sorriso, a famous samba-dancing street sweeper who performed as part of Rio’s cultural display at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London. “It is everyone’s job to fight against it.”
Although mosquitoes can bite anyone, the poor have fewer resources to prevent the spread of illness and are more likely to live in high-risk areas.
Antonia Silvia Peres, Bezerac’s mother, said four members of their family contracted Zika, as well as “15 or 16” of their immediate neighbors. “I was worried sick, thinking, ‘What if (my daughter) gets Zika and complicates her baby’s health?’ ” Peres said. “We did everything to avoid having mosquitoes, but some of our neighbors did not care or do anything about it. In a favela (slum), houses are very close, so it is hard to avoid contact.”
Effective repellents are too expensive for many in a country where the average wage is $626 per month, according to the government.
Julia Gastaldoni, 34, is pregnant with her second child and explained outside an Ipanema rail station how the situation had left her frustrated and anxious.
“I installed nets on my windows, and my doctor recommended I use repellent,” Gastaldoni said. “Other than that, there is not much you can do.”
“I heard that babies are being born with serious defects and small brains.”
Maria Vitoria Alves Bezerac, 13