Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125-3393, USA.
Escola de Matemática Aplicada FGV EMAp, Fundação Getulio Vargas FGV, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22250-900, Brazil.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 26;17(12):4613. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124613.
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.
孕妇感染 Zika 病毒可导致先天性大脑畸形。鉴于 Zika 病毒对妊娠的影响，各国政府以及国家和国际机构向孕妇发布了建议和指导。本研究旨在了解 Zika 对那些较少受到直接影响且不易感染 Zika 的女性产生的影响。研究对象来自巴西、波多黎各和美国的多个地点。通过半结构式访谈收集数据，并采用主题分析方法进行分析。女性认为公共卫生系统将预防 Zika 引发的健康并发症的责任不公平地归咎于那些能力有限的女性。她们还表示，向她们推荐的措施具有侵入性，同时让她们感到自己是唯一决定是否感染 Zika 的人。研究结果表明，教育程度较高的女性理解所获得的信息、政府行动和医疗保健的局限性，这导致她们产生了更高程度的痛苦和担忧。在应对公共卫生紧急情况时，必须认识到并正视性别不平等和歧视问题。疫情的社会影响比之前认为的更为深远，对女性的情感影响更为深刻。
