With less than a month until the 2016 Olympic Games kick off in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is still battling the heartbreaking effects of the Zika outbreak.
The ongoing epidemic has been a cause of alarm for athletes, scientists, and travelers who fear that going to a place with an active outbreak will put pregnant women at risk worldwide. Newborn babies have been the main victims of the Zika epidemic in Brazil and other parts of the Americas, with birth defects, such as microcephaly, being linked to the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) rejected a petition in late May by 100 leading scientists to push back Rio 2016. That decision hasn't stopped big names like NBC's Savannah Guthrie, cyclist Tejay van Garderen, and golfer Jason Day from announcing that they'll stay home.
But women in Brazil remain among those most closely hit by the outbreak — forced to live with the consequences of the spread since the first cases were confirmed in May 2015.
About 1,600 babies in the country have been born with microcephaly or other malformations in Zika-related cases, according to WHO. The number is only expected to grow in the coming months due to the country recording about 3,600 cases of Zika-infected pregnancies as of late May, The Washington Post reported.
Ahead, powerful photos that capture women and children affected by the virus so far this year in Pernambuco State, Brazil, which has been widely considered the epicenter of the health crisis.
Editor's note: All of the captions were provided by Getty Images and have been edited for clarity.
Alice Vitoria Gomes Bezerra, a 3-month-old who has microcephaly, is held by her mother, Nadja Cristina Gomes Bezerra, in January 2016 in Recife, Brazil.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
A lab technician analyzes blood samples at the "Sangue Bom" (Good Blood) clinic in Rio de Janeiro. Sangue Bom carries out clinic analyses, among them searches for Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya viruses in blood, a process that takes only 30 minutes.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
Mother Mylene Helena Ferreira holds her son David Henrique, a 5-month-old who has microcephaly.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
David Henrique Ferreira is held by his grandmother Maria Elisabeth as his mother stands to the left of them.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
An Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen through a microscope at an exhibition on Dengue fever in January 2016 in Recife, Brazil. The mosquito transmits the Zika virus, as well as Dengue.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
David Henrique is held by his mother as they ride the bus after a doctor's appointment. She says she spends up to eight hours per day in transit on buses, three days per week, to visit a litany of doctors with David.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
Officers of the Army, Navy, and Air Force reach out to Brazilian residents in a push for public awareness of the Zika virus and the mosquito that transmits it, in February 2016 in Sao Paulo.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
David Henrique is carried by his mother up the stairs back to their home after medical visits.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
David Henrique Ferreira, 9 months old, cries while his mother shops for food.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
Vanessa van der Linden, MD, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized and alerted authorities over the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, measures the head of a 2-month-old baby with microcephaly in January 2016 in Recife, Brazil. The baby's mother was diagnosed with having the Zika virus during her pregnancy.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
A city worker fumigates in an effort to eradicate the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus, in February 2016. Officials say as many as 100,000 people may have already been exposed to the Zika virus in Recife, Brazil, which is being called the epicenter of the crisis, although most never develop symptoms.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
David Henrique Ferreira is held by his mother Mylene after a bath.
Photo: VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images.
Houses stand in the Casa Amarela neighborhood in front of high rises. The city of Recife and the surrounding Pernambuco State remain the epicenter of the Zika virus outbreak, which has now spread to many countries in the Americas.
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