For Brazil’s Rich and Poor, Disparate Responses to Zika Virus

Stilt houses sit atop a polluted body of water at a slum at the epicenter of Brazil’s tandem Zika and microcephaly outbreaks, in Recife, on Jan. 29, 2016. Zika is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and anyone can be bitten by the insect, public health experts agree that the poor are more vulnerable because they often lack amenities that help diminish the risk, such as air conditioning and window screens. AP Photo/Felipe Dana

RIO DE JANEIRO—Two Brazilian women, two pregnancies, one nightmare. But two very different stories.

Regina de Lima and Tainara Lourenco became pregnant at a scary moment—the dawn of an extraordinary Zika outbreak, as authorities came to suspect that the virus was causing an alarming spike in a rare birth defect called microcephaly. Both have reason to fear for the health of their unborn offspring.

But that is where the similarities end.

A health worker fumigates against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a vector of the Dengue, Chikunguya and Zika viruses, inside a house in Lima, Peru,on Jan. 29, 2016. AP Photo/Martin Mejia