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WORLD NEWSWednesday 24 February
US-Brazil teams seek mothers, babies for Zika research
JENNY BARCHFIELD
Associated Press
JOAO PESSAO, Brazil (AP)
— U.S. and Brazilian health
workers fanned out across
one of Brazil’s poorest
states Tuesday in search of
mothers and their infants
for a study aimed at deter-
mining whether the Zika vi-
rus is causing birth defects
in babies.
Brazil’s health minister, Mar- CDC contingent in Paraiba
celo Castro, says he is “ab-
solutely sure” mosquito-
borne Zika is responsible for
a spike in cases of the rare
birth defect microcephaly,
which sees babies born
with small heads and brains
and can cause severe de-
velopmental problems.
But with scant scientific lit-
erature published on the
matter, some doctors in
Brazil and elsewhere say
there is not yet enough sci-
entific data to prove the
connection.
Jointly run by the Brazil’s
Health Ministry and the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the study
is intended to fill that vac-
uum by comparing babies
with microcephaly and
their mothers to babies
without the condition.
The popular “understand-
ing is that Zika virus (be-
Rousseff’s marketing guru in Brazil to face arrest of Joao Pessoa, the field
BRUCE DOUGLAS
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A
political marketing guru
who helped President Dil-
ma Rousseff win two elec-
tions is now under arrest in
the latest blow for her em-
battled government.
Joao Santana, the cam-
paign strategist behind
Rousseff’s electoral victo-
ries in 2010 and 2014, was
taken into custody Tuesday
morning after his flight from
the Dominican Republic
arrived in Sao Paulo. Po-
A municipal health worker prepares to apply insecticide in a junk yard to combat the Aedes ae-
gypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.
hind the microcephaly
spike). How much of that
is Zika virus is really one of
the important goals of this
study,” said Erin Staples, a
Colorado-based epide-
miologist who heads the
state. “I do believe there is
something occurring that is
unique and knowable, but
lice transferred him to the
southern city of Curitiba.
A day earlier, police had
issued an arrest warrant
for Santana and his wife,
Monica Moura, as part of
Operation Car Wash, a
two-year-long investigation
into corruption at the state-
run oil company, Petrobras.
They are accused of using
secret foreign bank ac-
counts to receive millions
of dollars in illicit funds from Santana first came to prom-
offshore companies con-
trolled by Odebrecht, one
of the major Brazilian con-
we really need to under-
stand better, mostly so we
can prevent this from hap-
pening to other genera-
tions.”
Eight teams made up of
one CDC staffer and three
Brazilian health workers will
knock on the doors of sev-
eral hundred randomly se-
lected families with infants
struction companies impli-
cated in the scandal.
Operation Car Wash,
which began two years
ago as an investigation
into a bribes-for-contracts
scheme at Petrobras, has
exposed how widely cor-
ruption permeates Brazilian
society, snaring dozens of
senior politicians, as well as “He was one of the first
the executives of powerful
construction companies.
inence in 2002, helping run
the presidential campaign
that led to victory for Lula
same areas and at around
the same time.
The researchers will take
(AP Photo/Andre Penner) blood samples from moth-
ers and babies that will be
throughout Paraiba, a sent to labs in Brazil and the
northeastern coastal state United States to test for Zika
that is one of Brazil’s least and dengue, a similar virus
developed. also transmitted by the Ae-
The teams hope to recruit des aegypti mosquito.
at least 130 babies with The idea is to determine
microcephaly and their whether mothers whose
mothers and two to three babies have microcepha-
times that number of moth- ly were infected with Zika
ers and babies without the and, if so, when during
condition, all born in the their pregnancies.
Teams will also be on the
lookout for other factors
that, possibly in conjunc-
tion with Zika, could be
behind Brazil’s increase in
microcephaly, such as a
prior infection with den-
gue, toxoplasmosis or the
ingestion of toxins.
“If we can provide some
basic information or show
a potential association,
that will allow us another
avenue of how do we pre-
vent this and what do we
need to do next,” Staples
said.
The recruitment process is
expected to take four to
five weeks, but the timeta-
ble will largely depend on
how receptive potential
subjects are.
At a training session Mon-
day in the state capital
teams rehearsed how
da Silva. He has overseen they will reach out to fami-
the presidential election lies and discussed ethical
campaigns of the ruling concerns, including how
Workers’ Party ever since. to react to reticence from
“He is without doubt the potential subjects and
most talented campaign how many times it is OK to
manager in Brazil,” Lucas prick babies to try to draw
de Aragao, a managing blood.
partner of Arko Advice said The language barrier
in a telephone interview. proved a stumbling block
at the training session, with
people to introduce U.S.- the Brazilians and Ameri-
style political campaigning cans team members often
to Brazil, with proper data, resorting to pantomime as
focus groups and accurate they ran through the scripts
research into the needs of they are to recite to poten-
the electorate.”q tial subjects in this Portu-
guese-speaking nation. q