Gender mainstreaming as a pathway for sustainable arbovirus control in Latin America

About the Authors: Clare Wenham * E-mail: c.wenham@lse.ac.uk Affiliation: Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5378-3203 João Nunes Affiliation: Department of Politics, University of York, York, United Kingdom Gustavo Correa Matta Affiliation: National School of Public Health, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Carolina de Oliveira Nogueira Affiliation: National School of Public Health, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Polyana Aparecida Valente Affiliations Instituto Rene Rachou–Fiocruz Minas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais/Ibirité, Vila Rosário, Minas Gerais, Brazil Denise Nacif Pimenta Affiliation: Instituto Rene Rachou–Fiocruz Minas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Citation: Wenham C, Nunes J, Correa Matta G, de Oliveira Nogueira C, Aparecida Valente P, Pimenta DN (2020) Gender mainstreaming as a pathway for sustainable arbovirus control in Latin America. Nonetheless, the media attention towards the highly gendered dimensions of the outbreak was not matched by a recognition of the importance of female participation in the decision-making for the control of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector responsible for the spread of Zika. [...]while women were the target population of the public health response to the epidemic, the impact of arbovirus policies on women was largely neglected. Due to the exodus of Venezuelans into neighboring countries, the incidence of these diseases is spilling over into the region and posing a major public health crisis, as neighboring countries struggle to limit the soaring rates of disease among displaced communities and beyond. Discussions about economic and social determinants, access to health information, and reproductive, disability, and maternal rights were largely marginalized from public policy considerations.