80 marieclaire.com.auAn anonymous plain white van
rolls through the quiet streets
of Piracicaba, a city of 400,000
in Sao Paulo state. It looks like
any other commercial vehicle,
but inside is a team on the
frontline of the fight to rid Brazil
of the scourge of Zika. From
inside the van, a team lead by
biologist Cecília Kosmann, are
releasing 800,000 genetically
modified mosquitoes a week.
The hope is that these mutant
mozzies will mate with the
Aedes aegypti mosquito which
carries the Zika virus. When
the two varieties reproduce,
the offspring is born with
a fatal genetic flaw.
For Kosmann, her day
starts at 5am. “We release
them early when people won’t
be as annoyed by them.”
Having been instrumental
in the delivery of hundreds ofthousands of insects, there are
occasional occupational
hazards. “I don’t notice them
anymore, even when I eat one
by accident,” she has said.
Kosmann works for a
biotech company called
Oxitec, which for two years
has been running a “mosquito
factory” producing millions of
insects inside their labs.
Initially, the project was aimed
at curtailing a dengue fever
epidemic, a disease which is
also spread by the Aedes
aegypti mosquito. But when
the Zika virus erupted last year,
the firm already had the
perfect, flying weapon in place
to combat its spread.
It’s a simple but effective
plan of attack. “If we fight the
mosquito, we are fighting every
disease that that mosquito can
transmit,” she has said.In the current crisis, Viviane Lima holds a
unique position: raising not one but two
children who suffer from microcephaly.
(Her daughters’ disability is said to have
been caused by a genetic abnormality.)
Now she is on a quest to help the mothers
of “Zika babies” who are hungry for answers.
“When I discovered 17 years ago that
my baby had microcephaly you didn’t hear
much about the condition – there wasn’t
enough support. When Ana Vitoria was
born, they said she wouldn’t walk or talk.”
Three years later, Lima was told her second
daughter also had the disease. “They said
Maria Luiza would die within 24 hours, that
she wouldn’t survive,” explains Lima.
However, Lima was in the fortunate
position to be able to pay for private medical
care. Her daughters go to school, play
sport and have relatively normal lives.
But, as the Zika epidemic unfolded in
2015, Lima felt compelled to reach out tothe thousands of mothers suddenly now
also raising babies with microcephaly.
“I said I needed to do something
because I had lived through this and I knew
that if these children were well supported,
they would overcome a bad diagnosis. So I
posted on Facebook that I had two
daughters [with microcephaly] and my
friends shared it and that’s how it all started.
I started to get contact from a lot of mums.”
Lima’s story struck a chord and today
the Facebook group she launched gives700 mothers from all over Brazil a space to
share their stories. “I also have 12 WhatsApp
[support] groups,” says the 35-year-old mum.
Lima’s next step is to create a
non-government organisation to help
mothers of Zika babies financially.
“All I hear is the government talking
about mosquitoes. But I don’t hear the
government talking about solutions,” she has
said. “It hurts to hear the media talk only
about numbers,” she adds. “These aren’t
numbers. They are children.”THE SCIENTIST FIGHTING
TO ERADICATE ZIKA
CECÍLIA KOSMANNTHE SUPPORT
GROUP FOUNDER
VIVIANE LIMAScientist Cecília
Kosmann is
using millions
of genetically
modified
mosquitoes,
which carry a
self-destructing
gene, to help
fight the spread
of the Zika virus.The Lima family (from left): Ana
Vitoria, Viviane, Carlos, Maria
Luiza and Julia. Ana Vitoria
and Maria Luiza were both
born with microcephaly.
Viviane started a Facebook
support group, which gives
mothers a space to share their
stories about the syndrome.World report