US editor Christopher Bucktin travels to Brazilian city of Recife to see nightmare first hand and meet the people on the receiving end.
The world has been shocked by news of the “shrunken head” virus sweeping South America – but nothing prepared me for holding this tiny tot in my arms.
I travelled to the Brazilian city of Recife to see this nightmare first hand and meet the people on the receiving end. And it is a grim experience.
I cradled little Juan Pedro Campos dos Santos. He has brain damage after being born with incurable microcephaly – a condition that leaves children with tiny heads.
It can be triggered during pregnancy by the violent Zika virus, spread by mosquitoes, which is threatening to become a global health crisis.
Pedro, who is also blind, is one of hundreds of babies with shrunken head syndrome in Recife, and his part of the city, village Apipucos, has been labelled the epicentre of Zika.
Among the broken sewers, in the humidity and heavy rains, the area provides ideal conditions for mosquitoes to thrive.
Pedro’s heartbroken mum Daniele, said: “Every day we are plagued by the mosquitoes. There is no escape. My main concern is if Pedro was to be bitten by one that is carrying the virus.
“He is so weak from his condition, I cannot bear to think what it would do to him.”
As well as his health, Pedro has been robbed of his dad, who walked out on the family because he could not deal with his son’s disfigurement.
Daniele, who faces bringing Pedro and another child up alone, said: “He just couldn’t cope.”
Pedro is being monitored by medics but they have been unable to give Daniele, 29, any indication of what his future holds.
She said: “The doctors say if he lives beyond a year they will have a much clearer indication of what we can expect. But for now we are totally in the dark.” Four months before the birth in December, Daniele was struck down with a high fever. She does not know for certain how she got it.
Weeks later she and her husband were told their son was likely to be born with a brain injury. His head is three-quarters of the size it should be.
Read more: Shrunken head virus hits Brits on holiday who are warned not to try for a baby
As Brazil fights the Zika virus in places such as Sao Paulo, Daniele said Apipucos had been forgotten, adding: “Despite what the world has seen – teams throughout Brazil fumigating whole areas – we have seen nothing.”
Senior health experts said the Zika virus, which has been confirmed in 23 countries, could be a bigger threat to international health than the Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in Africa.
The warning came ahead of Monday's emergency meeting of the World Health Organisation on whether the Zika threat is a global health crisis.
Experts predict four million people could be infected in the next year.
As well as the squalid conditions in Apipucos, its streets have also played host to massive parties during carnival season this month.
Local João Romo, 24, said: “People are partying among the mosquitos then having sex. Living at the epicentre of Zika you’d think people may change but when you are let down by your own government what hope does anyone have?”
Scientists are trying to develop a vaccine to combat the virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. There are fears the disease is weeks away from also being carried by the much more common culex mosquito, found in most parts of the Americas, Africa and Asia.
Three Brits have been confirmed as having caught Zika. Colombia says it currently has 2,116 expectant mums with the virus. In Brazil the official number is 3,700.
There are major fears surrounding the Summer Olympics which are being held in Rio in August.
In Apipucos, villager Luana Nuevo, 42, slated politicians. She said: “Babies are being born deformed, the elderly are left paralysed and all they care about is if the Games will be affected.”
The question is when, not if, the pests will bite
Walking through the sweltering streets of Apipucos is like playing Russian roulette with the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It is not a case of if, but when, they will bite – with the only uncertainty being whether yours was carrying the Zika virus or not.
In just a few hours I lost count of how many I found crawling on my skin. It was only after feeling their legs, mainly on the back of my soaking neck, was I able to dispatch them with a swift slap. Sadly, it appears Daniele – or her husband – were not as lucky. They never noticed the silent assassin that would rob their child of a healthy life.
After holding Pedro, seeing his pain up close, the true toll of Zika was driven home for me. It is difficult to imagine the life that lies ahead of their tiny son – if, as I hope, he survives.
