K. Eliza Williamson

 Debilitating Care

Brazil’s Zika epidemic left behind thousands of children with congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), most born to structurally vulnerable Black and mixed-race mothers who now shoulder intensive, lifelong caregiving. The relentless demands of care—compounded by poverty, fragmented health and social services, and bureaucratic barriers—gradually wear mothers down physically and mentally. Caregiving produces mental and physical ill health over time. Mothers’ stories reveal how epidemics generate wider, unevenly distributed forms of embodied harm beyond those directly diagnosed with disease.