a decade of zika
afterlives of an epidemic, lessons for global health
a virtual symposium hosted by the Vital Futures Initiative of the Duke Global Health Institute
english | português
ABOUT
Marking a decade since the outbreak that resulted in the births of thousands of severely disabled children, this virtual symposium brings together Brazilian parent-activists, social scientists, and global health experts to discuss the legacies of Zika.
Ten years ago, when the virus’ link to congenital neurological malformations came to light, Zika became an international public health emergency. Since 2015, thousands of women across the Americas who contracted Zika during pregnancy – most of them from marginalized and impoverished communities – have struggled to care for children with multiple disabilities. While the public health emergency officially ended only months after it began, many families in Brazil and across the Americas continue to live with the outbreak’s long-term consequences.
How have those directly affected by Zika confronted the challenges of living in the wake of the epidemic? How do the humanities and social sciences contribute to both academic knowledge and advocacy around disability and care in this context? What lessons does Zika hold for global health in a world in which climate change-induced, debilitating infectious diseases continue to have lasting effects on the most vulnerable communities?
This symposium aims to amplify the voices of those most affected by Zika, highlight social science contributions to our understanding of Zika’s human impacts, and foster critical conversations about how global health can address issues of disability and caregiving in the wake of infectious disease outbreaks.
This event is free and open to the public, supported by the Duke Global Health Institute’s Vital Futures initiative and the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Fund.
AGENDA
Note: All times are Eastern U.S. time.
8:00 – 8:15 a.m.
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Eliza Williamson
8:15 – 9:45 a.m.
Lived Experiences and Activism
Parents of children with congenital Zika syndrome will talk about their experiences and activist efforts.
Presenters:
- Nádia Maria Oliveira da Silva (Unizika)
- Erijessica Pereira da Silva Araújo (Unizika / Associação Macro Amor de Mossoró – Rio Grande do Norte)
- Eulina Farias (Associação Microcefalia Acolhimento e Empatia – Bahia)
- Joana Passos (mother of Gabriela, Bahia)
9:45 – 10:00 a.m.
Short break (15 min)
10 – 11:30 a.m.
Zika and the Social Sciences
Social scientists will discuss their work on Zika and its aftermath.
Presenters:
- Gustavo Corrêa Matta (Psychologist and Collective Health Scholar, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation)
- Thais Valim (Anthropologist, University of Brasília)
- Hannah Kuper (Epidemiologist, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
- Rosamund Greiner (Anthropologist and Global Health Scholar, RECENTRE Research Fellow)
- K. Eliza Williamson (Anthropologist, Duke University)
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Break (30 min)
12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Keynote
Debora Diniz, PhD
Anthropologist and Human Rights Advocate
University of Brasília and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
1:15 – 1:20 p.m.
Closing Remarks
Eliza Williamson
1:20 – 1:30 p.m.
Short break (10 min)
1:30 – 3 p.m.
(for invited speakers only)
Roundtable Discussion: “A Decade of Zika: Lessons from Brazil for the World”
A conversation between invited speakers and Duke researchers.
SPEAKER BIOS
Keynote Speaker
Debora Diniz
Debora Diniz is co-founder of Anis: Institute of Bioethics, one of the key feminist groups dedicated to bioethics and human rights in Latin America. An anthropologist by training, she is a professor of the Law Faculty at the University of Brasília and at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Since early 2016 Diniz has been working on research, communications, advocacy, and community leadership projects regarding Zika virus and its impacts on women’s and children’s health and rights. Diniz has also directed 8 documentary films that have won over 50 awards, including “Zika” (2016), which tells the story of five women surviving the Zika epidemic in the backlands of Brazil. She is also the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and books, including Zika: From the Brazilian Backlands to Global Threat (Zed Books, 2017).
Lived Experiences and Activism
Nádia Maria Oliveira da Silva
Nádia Silva is from the Northeast of Brazil and lives in Rio de Janeiro. She is a telecommunications technician and academic in psychopedagogy, mother of Lorena (who has Congenital Zika Syndrome) and Lia (a typical child). She is an activist for inclusion and an advocate against ableism. She directs the Associação Lótus (Lotus Association) – which welcomes and defends the rights of children with CZS – and acts as the national representative of Unizika in Rio de Janeiro.
Eulina Farias
Eulina Farias is founder and president of the “Microcefalia com Acolhimento e Empatia” Association (AMAE), an organization that works to care for and defend the rights of children with disabilities and their families. A tireless activist since becoming Deividy’s mother, Eulina has transformed her pain into a struggle and her motherhood into a mission. She is a full member of the Municipal Council for Persons with Disabilities and the Municipal Health Council of Salvador, where she actively contributes to the development of inclusive public policies. Her career is marked by a commitment to care, empathetic listening, and the pursuit of social justice.
Joana Passos
Joana Passos is the mother of Alice and Gabriela, the latter of whom was born with microcephaly and congenital Zika virus syndrome. Joana is a social activist and founder of the NGO Abraço à Microcefalia, a psychologist in training, and a specialist in special education and maternal mental health. She is a speaker and creator of the women’s therapy group “Tenha-se.”
Erijessica Pereira da Silva Araújo
Erijessica Pereira da Silva Araújo is a lawyer and atypical mother, a trajectory that deeply marks her professional and personal life. With a degree specializing in Social Security Law and Labor Procedure, she has built a career based on the defense of social rights, with an emphasis on her expertise in Health Law. Her commitment to ensuring access to healthcare and public policies led her to work as a lawyer for the National Association Unizika. Between 2017 and 2021, she also served as president of the Macro Amor Association in Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte, where she led initiatives to support families and people with disabilities.
Zika and the Social Sciences
Rosamund Greiner
Dr. Rosamund Greiner is a feminist researcher using qualitative, ethnographic and participatory methods to investigate health inequities. She is a Research Fellow on the RECENTRE project, which aims to establish an interdisciplinary research network to better understand (re)emerging infectious diseases in pregnant/lactating people and infants. Rosamund previously worked as a Lecturer (teaching) in Global Health at University College London. She completed her PhD in the Institute for Global Health at UCL, and her doctoral thesis investigated gender, disability, and care in the context of congenital Zika syndrome in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Hannah Kuper
Professor Hannah Kuper is founder and co-director of the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which works to expand the research and teaching activities of LSHTM in the field of global disability. Prof Kuper is an epidemiologist by training. She is passionate about improving health equity for people with disabilities, with a particular focus on people living in low and middle-income countries. She is also a co-founder of the Missing Billion Initiative, which promotes health equity for people with disabilities around the world, and an NIHR Global Research Professor.
Gustavo Corrêa Matta
Dr. Gustavo Corrêa Matta is a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro. He is a Collective Health scholar with an emphasis on health policy and planning, and he coordinates the Zika Social Sciences Network at Fiocruz.
Thais Valim
Dr. Thais Valim is a Brazilian anthropologist with a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Brasília. Her research investigates the co-production of scientific knowledge and public health during the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil, focusing on scientific collaborations, research infrastructures, and the role of children in the production of evidence. She works at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS), medical anthropology, and the anthropology of childhood.
K. Eliza Williamson
K. Eliza Williamson is a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on care in contexts of crisis and social inequality. Her current book manuscript, based on ten years of ethnographic research, examines how families in Bahia, Brazil engage with disability, care, and repair in the wake of the Zika virus epidemic. Eliza’s work has been funded by a number of granting agencies, including the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the U.S. Department of State. She is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Duke Global Health Institute, where she works with Harris Solomon on the Vital Futures global social medicine and health humanities initiative.
questions?
adecadeofzika@duke.edu
credits
background image: “Zika Virus Particles” by NIAID is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
