Harvard Public Health

In this week’s episode we speak with two leading experts on Zika virus—which grabbed international attention when it sickened a million people in dozens of countries more than two years ago. Marcia Castro is associate professor of demography in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard Chan School. She has extensively studied the lingering effects of Zika in Brazil—including how the virus has affected physical and mental health—as well as its effect on birth rates in the country. And Celina Turchi Martelli is professor of epidemiology of infectious diseases and a researcher at FIOCRUZ in Brazil. As the Zika outbreak began, Turchi worked closely with other scientists to track what was happening. Her research helped played a critical role in confirming that Zika did indeed cause microcephaly. Both Castro and Turchi participated in a panel discussion as part of Harvard Worldwide Week. The event, The New Era of Epidemics: Surveillance, Response, Impacts, and Challenges focused on lessons learned f