The Wire

A new report by a group of Argentine doctors suggests the mosquito-borne Zika virus, thought to be responsible for a dramatic increase in congenital defects in babies in Brazil, is not the real culprit. The report by Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns, claims a pesticide is behind the outbreak of microcephaly, a condition in which a baby’s head develops abnormally small. The pesticide, known as Pyriproxyfen is a larvicide manufactured by a subsidary of Monsanto and was added to Brazil’s water supply in 2014 as part of a government program to stop the development of mosquito larvae in drinking water. So could this be the reason behind the microcephaly outbreak? Kim Williams investigates.