For Brazil’s rich and poor, disparate response to Zika

In this Jan. 29, 2016 photo, Tainara Lourenco, who is five months pregnant, stands outside her stilt home, built over a polluted body of water at a slum in Recife, Brazil. To eke out a living for herself and her 2-year-old daughter, Lourenco ventures into a nearby swamp to hunt for crustaceans she hawks for $2.50 a kilo. “I think I got Zika or some other disease not long ago,” she said. “What can we do? Just hope that it doesn't affect the baby.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) In this Jan. 29, 2016 photo, Tainara Lourenco, who is five months pregnant, stands outside her stilt home, built over a polluted body of water at a slum in Recife, Brazil. To eke out a living for herself and her 2-year-old daughter, Lourenco ventures into a nearby swamp to hunt for crustaceans she hawks for $2.50 a kilo. “I think I got Zika or some other disease not long ago,” she said. “What can we do? Just hope that it doesn't affect the baby.” (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

By Associated Press January 31, 2016 6 min read

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Two Brazilian women, two pregnancies, one nightmare. But two very different stories.

Regina de Lima and Tainara Lourenco became pregnant at a scary moment – the dawn of an extraordinary Zika outbreak, as authorities came to suspect that the virus was causing an alarming spike in a rare birth defect called microcephaly. Both have reason to fear for the health of their unborn offspring.

But that is where the similarities end.

Lima is well-off, and took advantage of the options of affluence.

Lourenco lives in a slum. She has no options, except to hope for the best.