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The Documentary: Zika Love Stories

Zika Love Stories

29/09/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Zika Love Stories

Brazil’s Zika babies – now toddlers – and their 'warrior' mums

Julia Carneiro meets Brazil’s Zika babies – now toddlers – and their 'warrior' mums who set up the support group United Mother of Angels.

Three years ago, doctors in the north-east of Brazil noticed a worrying new trend - a spate of babies being born with abnormally small heads, or microcephaly. The cause was traced to an outbreak of the Zika virus earlier in 2015. More than 3,000 babies were born with significant disabilities, before the outbreak subsided and the Zika families withdrew from the forefront of people’s minds.
 
BBC Brasil’s Julia Carneiro goes back to the state of Pernambuco to meet children affected by congenital Zika syndrome, who are now toddlers. She finds families who have been rocked by adversity but are sustained by a strong sense of solidarity, resilience and love.
 
One mother, Germana Soares, set up a support group for Zika-affected families called the United Mothers of Angels, or UMA for short. The mothers have bonded and call themselves “guerreiras” – warriors. They wear T-shirts that say: “Microcephaly is not the end.”
 
While their battle is for support for their children, the doctors and scientists of the north-east are still desperate to learn more about the virus, and how it might be contained in the future.

(Photo: Cassiana kisses her daughter Melissa Victoria who has congenital Zika syndrome. Credit: Fernando Cavalcanti)

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