After Emergency: Social Protection Responses to Zika Virus in Brazil

Abstract

The Zika Congenital Syndrome has severe long-term, complex impacts on affected children and their caretakers, demanding state responses even after the withdrawal of the national health emergency status. This paper discusses the narratives and agency roles involved in the policymaking and implementation of a social protection response to the Zika epidemic in Brazil. It analyses the underlying narratives that have framed policy processes related to the Zika Congenital Syndrome both at the national and subnational level in a moment of political and economic crisis, the state of Rio de Janeiro being the case studied.