It has been ten years since Brazil faced a major outbreak of the Zika virus. The alert was given in 2015, when the country’s north-eastern states reported a sudden increase in the number of babies born with unusually small heads – a condition called microcephaly.
Obstetrician Adriana Melo was working in a maternity ward in Paraíba when she noticed something strange during routine ultrasounds. More and more foetuses had microcephaly. She suspected a link to the Zika virus, which was just starting to circulate in Brazil.
