Ground Zero of Brazil's Zika Outbreak

  • Isabel and Moises Albuquerque and their son son at the Associacao de Assistencia a Crianca Deficiente, a rehabilitation center for disabled children, in Recife, Brazil, Feb. 1, 2016.
    Sebastian Liste—NOOR for TIME
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  • Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, a neurologist at the Associacao de Assistencia a Crianca Deficiente, measures the head of a baby with microcephaly in Recife, Brazil, Feb. 1, 2016. This center has seen 69 children with microcephaly so far.
    Sebastian Liste—NOOR for TIME
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  • Adriana Cordeiro da Silva, 29, and her seven-month-year-old son Jose Bernardo, who was born with microcephaly, at the Associacao de Assistencia a Crianca Deficiente rehabilitation center in Recife, Brazil.
    Sebastian Liste—NOOR for TIME
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  • Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden shows brain scan images from a boy with microcephaly at the Associacao de Assistencia a Crianca Deficiente, a rehabilitation center for disabled children, in Recife, Brazil, Feb. 1, 2016.
    Sebastian Liste—NOOR for TIME
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  • A health worker sprays insecticide in the Nova Descoberta neighborhood of Recife, Brazil, Feb. 1, 2016. Recife became Ground Zero for the outbreak of Zika cases.
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  • Juliana Diniz da Slva, 22, with her three-month-old son, Pedro Henrique da Silva, in her house in Nova Descoberta, a favela in the outskirts of Recife, Brazil, Feb. 2, 2016. When she was seven months pregnant, doctors discovered the baby had the rare birth defect.
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  • Members of the military walk the streets of the Nova Descoberta neighborhood in a campaign to prevent the transmission of the Zika virus in Recife, Brazil, Feb. 2, 2016.
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  • Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen at the Fiocruz Institute in Recife, Brazil, Feb. 2, 2016.
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By TIME Photo

The city of Recife, Brazil, is at the heart of the global health crisis over Zika, a mosquito-borne virus. Rates of microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads, have surged as health officials have tried to stem the explosion of the virus among its population of 3.9 million.

Photographer Sebastian Liste documented the scenes of treatment and prevention for TIME. See the gallery above for glimpses around the city and inside the Associacao de Assistencia a Crianca Deficiente treatment center for babies with microcephaly.

Read more: See All the Places Where the Zika Virus Has Spread

Read next: How Brazil Uncovered the Possible Connection Between Zika and Microcephaly

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