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THE FIRST TIME I met Solange Ferreira was in December. She was at a hospital, waiting to hear from a doctor whether her baby boy had what so many in her village were talking about — microcephaly, or an abnormally small head that could be a sign of severe disabilities and a truncated life-expectancy.
I had no doubt that little Jose, born in September, had the condition that many experts believe is linked to the Zika virus. His head was notably small, his skull practically flat.
“Everybody says he has a small head, but I don’t know what’s going on,” Ferreira, a 38-year-old maid, told me while she waited in Caruaru, a city in northeast Brazil, near Recife, where the Zika virus has hit hardest.
Like so many other mothers I have interviewed and photographed, Ferreira asked me what I thought. I said nothing. I didn’t want to be the one to dash her hopes that Jose would be fine.
When she emerged from the doctor’s office, she told me the news. She had come alone to the hospital with Jose, and it was clear she needed to talk to somebody. She didn’t cry, but her sadness was palpable, and she seemed in shock. I asked for her phone number, and she agreed to let me photograph her and Jose the next day.
The bucket
In her small house in Poco Fundo, about a three-hour drive from Recife, I saw a mother struggling.
The boy would scream uncontrollably for long stretches, getting red in the face and tightening his already stiff limbs. He also struggled to feed, something I had learned was common in children with neurological disorders.
When his screaming got so bad that nobody in the house could take it, Ferreira would put Jose in a bucket.
A nurse at the hospital had suggested the technique, and it seemed to calm the child.
“We were lucky to learn about the bucket,” said Ferreira.
Editing my pictures that night was hard. I realised that so many captured Jose suffering, but I didn’t want to just show him in that light.
The pictures of Jose in the bucket would have a large impact on me and on readers around the world. So this week I decided to visit the family again.
Ferreira had moved a few hours away to a town called Bonito while her husband remained in their old village. She said she wanted to be closer to Recife, where Jose can get therapy, and to get away from an area infested with mosquitoes.
“If we had not been there, this wouldn’t have happened,” she said.
In reality, Bonito is no different than Poco Fundo in terms of mosquitoes and the viruses they transmit, such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Like many Brazilian women with babies recently born with microcephaly, Ferreira was never tested for Zika, though she says she had the symptoms early in her pregnancy.
Paralysed and blind
This second time I visited, Jose looked worse. Not only did he scream uncontrollably, but one of his eyes convulsed. Ferreira told me that she fears Jose could end up paralysed and blind.
He had lost weight, from seven to five kilograms, a huge drop for a baby who should be growing. Depending on the severity, some children with microcephaly fail to thrive and thus die before becoming adults.
Ferreira cried when she said she had realized that Jose may never run and play like her two older children. I realized then that the full weight of what Ferreira was up against had hit her. This wasn’t a temporary problem, a challenge that would, eventually, be overcome. Now a little over four months old, Jose would need extreme care for the rest of his life.
As I was leaving, a neighbour with an infant about the same age as Jose came over for a visit.
Ferreira looked at the baby and smiled.
“Now I have started believing that it is actually the other babies that have heads that are too big,” she said, in a tone both playful and sad. “Jose is my new normal.”
- Felipe Dana, Associated Press photographer.
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It’s a cruel world.
Nothing worse than seeing a child suffering. Must be horrible for his parents.
“How she cried, tears of happiness the day the doctor told her, it’s a boy…now she cries, tears of helplessness when she thinks of all the things he can’t enjoy”
Scorn not his simplicity
I hope this little boy and his mother are getting the best health care, love and support that can be provided to them, it’s a journey that has only begun for this family and so many others like them!
Sadly probably not. It’s the poor in Brazil that are most impacted by this.
The Zika virus will continue to spread as people in places like El Salvadore don’t have adequate access to contraceptives or access to abortions .So,so sad. Their governments solution is very like a few people that you find on here ,which is ultimately ,keeping your legs closed for up to two years ..
Zila is a human made virus and Brazil as their test country. Anyway Brazil living looks so poor now I wonder why all them stay in Ireland for good.
Human made? Source please? I won’t hold my breath…
Source…? You can’t just say things as outrageous as that and expect people with at least the mental capacity of a mosquito to believe you…?
Malachi, these are known facts for those who care to be in the know!, get your head out of your Arse and rather than passing inane comments on others comments go do your own research!!!!
So still no source? It’s clear who’s head is in their ass.
Why are some men so nasty?????!!!!!
You were asked for evidence to back up your outrageous claims. That’s not being “nasty” – cop on. Still waiting…
These defects do not occur naturally in nature,
so it is not unreasonable to consider
that humans are not supposed to be born with this and other defects
or
the fact that human’s tampering with nature brings about these defects.
Go do your own research!, it will give you something to do for a half an hour!, take your mind off things!!!!, I’ll make it easy for you……type Zika, Rockerfeller into your search engine!
Jessica, I wonder where you got this information from.. Also, what a silly statement of yours, the whole opinion sounds stupid.
I was referring to the comment you made earlier about tan and duck lips!, no need for any of it, we’re all adults here, why be so condescending to Jessica???, your own inability to understand perhaps!, it’s a discussion not a cat fight!!!!!
Kate, maybe you don’t know how to cut and paste a google link to back up your craziness.
Sorry Kate, if you make a wild claim the onus is on you to back it up. ‘Do your own research’ is weak to say the least. You got the information from somewhere, surely, unless it was divinely inspired. So what’s the problem with giving me a link to verify your claims? Does it exist? Did you make it up on the spot? Who knows.
*sigh*
@Johnneary What defects do not occur in nature? Horrible defects like have afflicted the boy in the article? Sorry to burst your bubble, but that could happen to anyone. A sneaky little thing called ‘genetic mutation’ is a completely natural occurrence, caused by imperfect replication of genetic data from parent to offspring.
No tampering going on there. Babies are born with malformed/deformed limbs and even craniums all the time and it’s simply the fault of bad genetic replication.
Like ebola maybe
@Kate any chance you want to explain how fluoride is keeping us all docile to avoid rebellion or how the mmr vaccine causes autism? There’s sources for both of those things but they are both false statements. Just because it exists on the internet, doesn’t make it true..
It was found not made by Rockefeller foundation. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160128-zika-virus-birth-defects-brian-damage-history-science/
@Dara …which is exactly why you should ask for a source, so the source can be evaluated on its scientific merit (or lack thereof). For instance, if you had a report on GMOs coming from a website with the domain name ‘GMOAction’ or ‘GMOFreeze’ or ‘GMOsAreBadAndWillKillUsAll’, you could be fairly sure you’re not going to get an impartial report. Similarly, in this case, I would imagine Kate’s source is from Alex Jones ‘infowars’ or maybe even further into the internet conspiracy abyss.
Malachi It’s for you to decide what you believe, me, personally I would put nothing past these ruthless power hungry people!, they have shown us all in the past what the great powers that be are capable of!
Mel, I stand corrected!!
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147905 Have a read of that there Kate, probability that a conspiracy of that size could be kept under wraps is essentially statistically impossible. But then again if you don’t like the truth you can just ignore facts
Dara – she just admitted she was wrong, after someone took 5 seconds to Google it.
What’s scary is that people like her are going around mouthing off about a big conspiracy & spreading lies, when they actually completely misinterpreted the info to begin with. Idiots are dangerous.
Dara, Bill Gates stood in a room full of people and released some mosquitos from a box while sneeringly saying “Why should only the poor suffer”!!!, he laughed about it!, to me it’s sinister, the Rockefeller foundation and everything attached to it rotten to the chore!
Where is this clip, Kate? Or will you again tell everyone to “do your own research”, rather than back up your lunacy.
I hope you haven’t just heard about his TED talk, and also completely picked it up wrong.
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unplugged?language=en
Neil it’s there in any mainstream media!
Yep – just as expected. You have yet to back up a single thing you’ve said. It’s really pathetic.
What’s really pathetic is a grown man not be able to do his own research!
What’s really pathetic is an adult not having the critical faculties to detect bullshit
Wow, Neil and Kate. That escalated quickly. No arguing with ye two scholars
I did what you said and got a load of conspiracy sites. Heres a reputable source. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160128-zika-virus-birth-defects-brian-damage-history-science/
Contraception and abortion. Selfish and outrageous to bring those kids in the world.
They are not allowed to have abortion there, it’s against the law.
Contraception in El Salvador could cost around 15 to 20 us dollars. It is not free. Minimum wage is 40 to 50 dollars per week, sometimes even less. I know that, I am from that country.
have your say