Infectious Disease Expert to Discuss Zika

Today at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Dr. Louise Ivers will discuss Zika on Facebook Live. 

The video will be streamed here.

We’ll be taking questions before and during the interview. Submit them here!

Ivers, a senior health and policy advisor at Partners In Health, will discuss symptoms of and treatment for Zika, how PIH is addressing the virus in Haiti, and how Zika may have an impact on the Summer Olympics in Brazil—the site of an ongoing outbreak.

The sudden emergence of Zika in dozens of countries over the past year has attracted worldwide attention. And justly so. While some people infected with the virus experience fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, or red eyes, others suffer more alarming consequences. Research has linked an expectant mother’s infection with Zika during pregnancy with microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with small heads and underlying lack of brain developoment. There are also reports of patients infected with Zika later developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a life-threatening neurological disorder that requires intensive care.

Cases of Zika infection have already been reported in Haiti, where PIH has thousands of staff and serves thousands of patients every day. Working with the Ministry of Public Health and Population and several international organizations, we are training community health workers to spread the word about Zika, explain the risk to pregnant women and helping them to protect themselves by distributing mosquito repellant, as well as increasing access to family planning. We also care for the sick and are working urgently to protect staff by ensuring clinic and hospital windows have screens—among other efforts.

Ivers’ Bio

Ivers is helping to guide PIH’s response. An infectious disease expert, Ivers served as PIH’s clinical director in Haiti for almost 10 years. She is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate physician within the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has published dozens of articles on HIV and food security, cholera, and human rights in journals such as The Lancet Global Health, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

More information on the Zika virus is available here.