Whatever Happened to Zika?
In 2015, a horror movie came to life. The mosquitoes that swarm almost all tropical climates began infecting people with a strange new virus. In most, Zika caused no symptoms, or a mild rash and fever. But if it happened to infect a pregnant woman, her baby could be born with severe birth defects. Zika dramatically increased the risk of a condition called microcephaly, or a clinically small head. Over the following years, about 4 to 9 percent of infected pregnant women gave birth to babies with permanent brain damage.
Suddenly, pregnant women in America and elsewhere were told not to to the Caribbean and South America. Expecting mothers in Miami, where local mosquitoes were transmitting the virus, all summer long. Today, thousands of Brazilian families struggle to care for , “their limbs rigid, their mouths slack, many with foreheads that sloped sharply back above their dark eyes,” as described in 2022.
