‘It’s not a true peace situation’, says researcher on Zika in Brazil

In the midst of the challenge, another novelty emerged. At the end of that year, a different syndrome began to draw his attention, very similar to dengue and chikungunya, but without tests confirming the diseases. In January 2015, around 50 km from the capital of Bahia, an outbreak of the new condition was identified in Camaçari, where the doctor was providing consultancy. From there, they started working with hypotheses.

The population of Camaçari demanded that the state water company carry out an analysis, because they believed that people were becoming blistered due to contaminated water. But I said it was another disease, I just didn’t know what it was. Antonio Bandeira, infectious disease specialist

Scientific partnership discovered the Zika virus in Brazil. In a hospital in Camaçari, the infectious disease specialist obtained authorization to analyze biological samples from infected people. The investigation involved the laboratory work of researchers Gubio Soares Santos and Silvia Inês Sardi, from UFBA, who began testing virus possibilities.

On April 28, 2015, cases were confirmed. Bandeira was at an airport in Denmark, after a conference, when he received a message from Santos warning that the samples had tested positive for Zika. “I had a lot of colleagues from Brazil with me. I was so excited that I turned around and said: ‘guys, that outbreak in Brazil is Zika virus’. Everyone looked and said: ‘this guy took something here in Denmark'”, he recalls.

Viruses were already circulating on other continents. The disease began in Africa and spread throughout Asia and Oceania until reaching the American continent, being first identified in Brazil.

Most infections have no symptoms or are mild, but there are neurological complications. Soon the condition began to be associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome — where Bandeira worked, cases went from one to 50 per month — and microcephaly.