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1 of 9Mylene Helena Ferreira holds her five-month-old son David Henrique Ferreira, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 25, 2016.Mario Tama—Getty Images -
2 of 9Homes are lit as the sun goes down in Ibura, one of the neighborhoods with the highest numbers of suspected cases of children born with microcephaly in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 27, 2016.Felipe Dana—AP -
3 of 9Soldiers inspect a house during an operation against the Aedes aegyti mosquito in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 27, 2016. Health authorities in the state at the center of a Zika outbreak have been overwhelmed by the surge of babies born with microcephaly, a neurological disorder associated with the mosquito-borne virus.Ueslei Marcelino—Reuters -
4 of 9A technician of the Fiocruz Institute stores Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to be used in research, in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 27, 2016.Felipe Dana—AP -
5 of 9Doctors scan the brain of a newborn to detect microcephaly, a neurological disorder associated with the Zika virus, at the Obras Sociais Irma Dulce hospital in Salvador, Brazil, Jan. 27, 2016.Christophe Simon—AFP/Getty Images -
6 of 9Staff prepare to draw blood from Ludmilla Hadassah Dias de Vasconcelos, who has microcephaly, at the Oswaldo Cruz Hospital in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 26, 2016.Ueslei Marcelino—Reuters -
7 of 9Matheus Lima, 22, holds his two-year-old son, Pietro, who suffers from microcephaly, at his home in Salvador, Brazil, Jan. 28 , 2016.Christophe Simon—AFP/Getty Images -
8 of 9Girls gather nearby as health workers fumigate against the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 28, 2016. Health officials believe as many as 100,000 people have been exposed to the Zika virus in Recife, although most never develop symptoms.Mario Tama—Getty Images -
9 of 9Gisele Felix, who is five months pregnant, stands on a terrace next to her son, Joao, at her home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jan. 28, 2016. Felix, who is concerned about the Zika virus, has not gone out of her house during her 30-day vacation, keeping all the windows and doors closed in an effort to keep out mosquitoes.Pilar Olivares—Reuters
About nine months after Brazil recorded its first case of Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that medical officials have linked to a severe birth defect in newborns called microcephaly, the country lies at the center of a rapidly growing outbreak that has seen thousands of cases appear throughout the Americas. Some 4,000 cases have been reported in Brazil, many of them in Recife, a state capital in the northeast.
Read next: Why the Zika Outbreak Marks a New Normal for Infectious Disease
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