Too Much to Ask Too Much to Handle

Authors

• Ana Rosa Linde Arias
• Elisa Tristan-Cheever
• Grace Furtado
• Carlos Eduardo Siqueira

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Abstract: Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of congenital brain abnormalities. Its consequences for pregnancies have made governments and both national and international agencies issue advice and recommendations to women. This study was designed to understand the impacts of Zika on women who were less directly affected and less vulnerable to Zika. Women were recruited from various locations in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Women perceived that public health systems placed an unfair responsibility for preventing health complications from Zika onto women who had limited ability to do so. They also stated that the measures recommended to them were invasive, while creating the perception that women were the sole determinant of whether they contracted Zika. The results indicate that women with higher levels of education understood the limitations of the information, government actions, and medical care they received, which ended up producing higher levels of anguish and worry. Gender inequality and discrimination must be recognized and rendered visible in the public health emergency response. The social effects of the epidemic affected women more than had been thought before and at deeper emotional levels.

Comments

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Recommended Citation

Arias, Ana Rosa Linde; Tristan-Cheever, Elisa; Furtado, Grace; and Siqueira, Carlos Eduardo, "Too Much to Ask Too Much to Handle" (2020). Gastón Institute Publications. 352.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/gaston_pubs/352