To Fight Zika We Must fight Poverty and Powerlessness and Ensure That Women Enjoy Their Rights

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By: Alicia Ely Yamin, Director of Policy, FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

By Alicia Ely Yamin, Director of Policy, FXB Center for Health & Human Rights The speed with which the Zika virus appears to be spreading is only surpassed by the speed at which structural political failures in Latin America have been transformed into apparent personal deficiencies. Zika is transmitted by aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever. These mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and are most endemically found where poor people lack adequate plumbing and sanitation, and collect water in open containers…read more