EXCLUSIVE Doctors warn of 'BBL smell'... as they reveal patients struggle to keep clean after enhancing their bottoms
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported a 90 percent increase in BBLs between 2015 to 2022, and a roster of celebrities, including Cardi B, Kim Kardashian, and Nene Leakes, are all rumored to have received butt-enhancing procedures.
But while BBLs - which cost an average of around $8,600 - might look aesthetically pleasing, there is a less pleasant side effect: the 'BBL smell.'
Dr Eric Anderson from Chicago-based Impressions Face + Body, told DailyMail.com that 'the BBL smell is real,' and it can be caused by a number of things, including tissue death and unhygienic practices.
One complication of BBLs is 'fat necrosis,' which causes fatty tissue in the buttocks to die following surgery, 'an indicator that a patient was overfilled with fat during the procedure.
'When there is more fat in an area than the blood supply allows, the fat will die through a smelly process called fat necrosis, which can lead to infections that need antibiotics, hospitalizations, and even sepsis.'
But the smell may also come from uncleanliness.
In one viral video, TikToker @donpsoundsoff described the smell from one woman's BBL he went on a date with as an 'an assault of my nose'.
And in another clip, a woman said she had to get her BBL reversed because it 'smelled like a dumpster.'
Another posted: 'When God created us, he gave us arms. All of our arms [are] made specifically for our body. You probably have a hard time wiping... properly because your body is a little bit wider than your arms are allowing you to reach in that area.'
Dr Roger Tsai, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, says reaching around to the larger buttock area after surgery might be difficult after using the bathroom, which can cause a foul-smelling odor.
He explains: 'Wiping down there is going be a lot more difficult because there's more to reach around.'
Plastic surgeons typically give their patients fair warning about difficulties in the bathroom following the procedure.
Sitting is not allowed for about two months after undergoing a BBL, though sitting on the toilet for a relatively quick bathroom break is ok.
Many physicians recommend bidets to wash the area thoroughly.
New York-based plastic surgeon Dr Douglas Steinbrech adds that a foul smell following BBL surgery may not be something to worry about.
He explains: 'It's actually pretty common for patients to notice some unusual or even unpleasant smells after a BBL procedure.
'I don't see it a lot in my practice but I have seen the conversation online.
'Most of the time, what they're smelling isn't anything dangerous - it's usually related to the healing process.
'After surgery, the body is draining fluids, and the patient is wearing tight compression garments that can trap sweat, moisture, and bacteria against the skin.
'That combination, especially in warm areas like the lower back or thighs, can definitely lead to some odor.
'If fat was removed from areas like the stomach or thighs, they might also notice some musty or sour smells coming from those donor sites while they're healing.'
That being said, Dr Steinbrech says if the smell is really strong, getting worse, or is accompanied along with redness, swelling, or discharge, it could be a sign of infection or fluid build-up.
In this case, the patient should definitely reach out to the surgeon.
But even if the surgery goes well, the physician says he has heard many patients say they're surprised by how long the smell sticks around, even with good hygiene.
He reveals: 'Honestly, the BBL smell is just not something that always gets mentioned before surgery.
'The patient is not doing anything wrong, and they're not alone.'
In a bid to keep the smell to a minimum, Dr Steinbrech advises keeping the area clean and dry and regularly changing compression garments.
While BBLs have seen a meteoric rise in popularity, the procedure is considered one of the riskiest out there, with one in every 3,000 patients dying from complications.
And because many women go overseas to get a discounted procedure, follow-up with the doctor who performed it is minimal or, in most cases, nonexistent.
A BBL involves a surgeon harvesting fat from the hips, lower back, abdomen, thighs and other areas via liposuction.
That fat is then reinjected in the buttocks.
But it's hard for doctors to see where they are injecting it and could be mistakenly pumping fat into the gluteal muscle, which introduces fat particles into blood vessels.
These particles travel through the bloodstream and block blood flow to organs including the heart, leading to a condition called fat embolism syndrome.
This causes symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, confusion, and even respiratory failure or cardiac arrest.
Nerve damage in the area where the fat was injected may also occur, leading to paralysis of the lower extremities and chronic pain.
The risk of complications and potentially deadly after-effects have convinced some plastic surgeons to stop offering the service.
Dr Lara Devgan, a New York-based plastic surgeon, said: 'This is my litmus test, my personal golden rule of plastic surgery: If you wouldn't let your mother or sister or brother have a procedure, you shouldn't let your patients either.
'The Brazilian butt lift is an operation that I do not perform any longer, because the mortality data speaks for itself. The risk-benefit calculus simply does not add up.'
Dr Chris Funderburk of Neinstein Plastic Surgery in New York says the best way to avoid complications with BBLs is by doing research to find a certified surgeon and 'not pushing it too far'.
He recommends patients to go for 'a more natural and elegant look rather than overfilled and exaggerated'.
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Medical News Today
37 minutes ago
- Medical News Today
Might a combination of 2 cancer drugs help treat Alzheimer's disease?
Researchers are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer's diseaseOne current research avenue is to look at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach that is called drug repurposing. A new study has identified two cancer medications that may help overturn brain changes caused by Alzheimer's disease, possibly slowing or even reversing the disease's symptoms. Researchers all over the world are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer's disease — a form of dementia currently impacting about 32 million people globally. The medications used right now for Alzheimer's disease are designed to only help treat symptoms and slow disease progression. One avenue scientists are taking in an effort to find treatments for Alzheimer's disease is by looking at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach called drug repurposing. 'The idea of drug repurposing or identifying new uses for existing drugs, can speed up the drug discovery process because the compounds already have been tested for toxicity and adverse events,' Marina Sirota, PhD, professor and interim director of the University of California — San Francisco Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute explained to Medical News Today.'Alzheimer's disease is a complex disease, which is very difficult to treat so we need to use all the tools possible to speed up drug discovery and help patients,' said SirotaSirota is the co-senior author of a new study recently published in the journal Cellthat has identified two cancer medications that may help overturn brain changes caused by Alzheimer's disease, possibly slowing or even reversing the disease's symptoms. Focusing on cancer drugs letrozole and irinotecanFor this study, researchers began by using past studies to assess how Alzheimer's disease changed gene expression in brain cells, mainly neurons and glia. 'Glia cells are non-neuronal cells that provide support and protection to neurons in the nervous system,' Sirota explained. 'By targeting both neuronal cells and non-neuronal cells (glia) we hope to be able to more comprehensively target disease pathophysiology.' From there, scientists then took the gene expression signatures they found and used a database called the ConnectivityMap, allowing them to examine thousands of drugs to find ones that reversed the Alzheimer's disease gene expression signature.'We started with a set of 1,300 drugs and narrowed it down to the combination of letrozole and irinotecan through data driven analysis using both molecular and clinical data,' Sirota said.'We first identified compounds that reversed the cell type specific disease signatures back to normal based on the gene expression profiles. We then further filtered the list to the candidates that affect several cell types,' she explained.'Then we wanted to see whether patients who are on those drugs already have a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease by querying electronic medical records across the UC system,' she continued. 'This has allowed us to narrow our list down to a handful of drugs and focus on this combination.' The analysis of electronic medical records did indeed show that both drugs were associated with a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, confirming the of cancer drugs reverses brain cell damage, reduces protein build-up in mouse modelNext, researchers decided to test the combination of letrozole — used to treat breast cancer — and irinotecan — used to treat colorectal and lung cancer — in a mouse model of aggressive Alzheimer's disease. At the study's conclusion, Sirota and her team found that the drug combination overturned multiple aspects of Alzheimer's disease in the mouse model, including undoing the gene expression signature changes in the neurons and glia caused by the disease. Additionally, researchers found the combination cancer drugs helped reduce the amount of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the brain, which are known hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. 'This tells us that multiple levels of evidence — molecular data, clinical information and mouse model experiments are all aligning to tell us that these compounds might be helpful for Alzheimer's disease patients,' Sirota further noted that:'While we don't know the exact mechanism of how these drugs work to treat Alzheimer's disease, we know that irinotecan is a chemotherapy drug that works by inhibiting the enzyme DNA topoisomerase I, specifically targeting the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. Letrozole's mechanism of action involves inhibiting the enzyme aromatase, which is crucial in the biosynthesis of estrogen.''However, we don't know whether it is the main aforementioned mechanisms or off-target effects of these drugs which might help Alzheimer's disease patients,' Sirota cautioned. 'Additional experiments need to be carried out to better understand how these two drugs might work together to combat Alzheimer's disease in patients.'Using 'big data' and inventive approaches to find potential Alzheimer's drug targetsMNT had the opportunity to speak with John Dickson, MD, PhD, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, about this research. 'This is an interesting and innovative paper that uses 'big data' to aid in identifying potential drug targets to treat Alzheimer's disease and then tests candidates in a preclinical model of Alzheimer's disease,' Dickson, who was not involved in this research, said.'Combining the use of transcriptomic data from brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease patients, drug perturbation studies in cell lines, and patient data from electronic medical records was an inventive approach to identifying and narrowing down potential drug targets,' he Dickson's view, 'the decision to use a dual-therapy approach and plan to target multiple cell types with this strategy was also innovative.''The combination of drugs showed beneficial effects on the memory testing and neuropathological findings in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. In addition to identifying two potential candidate therapies for Alzheimer's disease, this paper also provides an experimental paradigm for identifying new drugs to treat a variety of conditions,' he look at repurposing existing drugs for Alzheimer's treatment? MNT also talked to Clifford Segil, DO, a neurologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, about this study, who said it is refreshing to see data that supports improving memory loss through a novel mechanism that is not related to current therapies that work on brain acetylcholine, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), or amyloid.'This study's design is smart and the data is captivating,' Segil, who likewise was not involved in the research, added. 'Repurposing medications already being used has been extremely rewarding in neurologists and I truly hope something grows out of this research.' And Peter Gliebus, MD, neurologist and director of cognitive and behavioral neurology at Marcus Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, also not involved in the research, commented to MNT that this was a promising and exciting study, and said that repurposing existing drugs offers several advantages. 'Faster development since these drugs already have established safety profiles, which reduces the time and cost required for clinical trials,' Gliebus noted.'Cost-effectiveness [is achieved] by avoiding the high expenses associated with developing new drugs from scratch. And [this approach has] a broader impact, as many existing drugs may have unexplored mechanisms that could address complex Alzheimer's disease pathologies, such as neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and metabolic deficits.''Given the high failure rate of Alzheimer's drug trials, repurposing provides a practical and efficient pathway to identify effective treatments,' the neurologist concluded.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
The science-backed exercise method that can help fight the effects of ageing
At 10 years old, Danny Matranga wanted to be a basketball player, devoting countless hours to honing his skills and developing his athleticism. That was also the year his father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. 'I had this contrast, seeing what it's like to lose your physical function, then also experiencing my own journey of gaining more physical function. It became apparent to me that exercise was much more than just a tool for athleticism and aesthetics,' Matranga explains. 'I said, 'You know what? I cannot save my dad, I cannot fix this, but I can hopefully empower other people to not only develop their body, but also protect against disease.' For this reason, he became a personal trainer, choosing to specialise in strength training due to the emerging research around its benefits for both body and brain. Since then, further studies have cemented this training method's status as a top option for those looking to exercise for health, longevity and maintaining physical function. This is why it is believed by many, Matranga among them, to be the most important type of exercise you can do to live well into your later years. Read on to find out more about the science-backed benefits, and how to get started. First things first: all exercise is good Just because strength training is framed as 'the best' here, that doesn't mean other types of exercise are without merit. Any physical activity you do is highly likely to provide myriad benefits – movement truly is medicine. A 2011 study published in The Lancet monitored the medical screenings of 416,175 people over the course of 12 years, then split participants into one of five activity level groups: inactive, low, medium, high or very high. Those in the low activity group completed an average of roughly 15 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day, but this accessible figure still saw them record a three-year longer life expectancy than those in the inactive group. 'Every additional 15 minutes of daily exercise beyond the minimum amount of 15 minutes a day further reduced all-cause mortality by 4 per cent and all-cancer mortality by 1 per cent,' the study states. Moderate-intensity exercise is any form of activity that elevates your heart rate and has you breathing harder, but still allows you to hold a conversation – be that strength training, walking, running, cycling or otherwise. Strength training, however, has a whole host of bonus benefits that make it a wise use of your time – particularly when viewed through a longevity lens. The bonus benefits of strength training, especially as you age Sarcopenia and dynapenia refer to the age-related loss of muscle mass and muscle strength or function. According to a review published in the Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 'muscle mass decreases by approximately 3 to 8 per cent per decade after the age of 30, and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60'. Further possible effects of sarcopenia and dynapenia include an increased risk of falls and reduced physical capacity, as well as a consequent increase in fat mass, decreased bone density, increased joint stiffness and 'increased incidence of insulin resistance in the elderly', the review later adds. 'All these changes have probable implications for several conditions, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease and osteoporosis,' it concludes. Strength training, which bolsters muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments while also improving balance, coordination and heart health, is the natural antidote. The Live Active Successful Ageing study, published in the British Medical Journal Open Sport and Exercise Medicine journal in 2024, explored the long-term effects of strength training – otherwise known as resistance training – on adults at retirement age. Hundreds of participants were placed in one of three groups: those put through a year of supervised resistance training with heavy loads (relative to the individual's strength level), those tasked with completing regular moderate-intensity training, and a non-exercising control group. Four years on, 369 participants returned for an assessment – the average age was 71 years, and 61 per cent were women. Those who lifted heavy weights still had higher strength levels then before they started the programme, whereas the other two groups saw a decrease. They also maintained higher levels of lean body mass (or muscle) than the other two groups. The study concluded: 'In well-functioning older adults at retirement age, one year of heavy resistance may induce long-lasting beneficial effects by preserving muscle function.' Another 2023 study published in the GeroScience journal linked twice-weekly strength training sessions, performed for 12 weeks, to positive effects on cognitive health in adults aged between 60 and 80. It states: 'Findings suggest that resistance training seems to elicit alterations in various neurometabolites that correspond to exercise-induced 'preservation' of brain health, while simultaneously having its beneficial effect on augmenting muscle functional characteristics in older adults.' In short: it's good for both your mind and body, helping maintain physical and mental function as you age. How to start strength training Whatever age you are, and whatever age you start, strength training will deliver significant benefits if performed correctly. To illustrate this point, Matranga spins his camera around during our Zoom interview to reveal a woman in her eighties performing textbook Romanian deadlifts in his fitness studio. 'It's actually unbelievable what she can do – it's not normal, but it's normal for us here,' he tells me. 'It still blows my mind. We're seeing all of this research that's just now coming out, and I think, 'Hey, if you want samples of well-ageing adults, they're right here in the gym.' I feel like the research is starting to echo what I've been seeing for a long time, so I really want to encourage more people to start strength training.' Rather than jumping straight into a hardcore training plan, he recommends starting with one or two full-body sessions per week – 'You're only going to make progress equal to the amount of work you can recover from, and a new exerciser can't recover from an advanced routine. We want to start at a level that is appropriate for our fitness level, and it only takes two days a week to change your life.' Workouts can take as little as 20 minutes and comprise just four moves, Matranga adds. 'When you're a novice, you can go into the gym and do a pushing exercise and a pulling exercise [like a chest press and a bent-over row] for your upper body, something like a squat for the front of your legs, something like a deadlift for the back of your legs, and then you can walk away after four exercises having trained every single muscle in your body,' he says. To begin with, you can use the workout below twice per week to work your whole body with just a couple of dumbbells. Practice the exercises without weights at first to reinforce favourable form, then work up to a weight that challenges you when completing the target number of repetitions. The key pillars of successful strength training It is helpful to work with a trainer when you first start strength training. This can allow you to perfect your form for each exercise – like any physical activity, lifting weights is a skill that needs to be learned. Beyond this, there are a few fundamentals that need to be present for this pursuit to be successful. Consistency: The body adheres to the SAID principle, which stands for specific adaptations to imposed demands. Put simply, it adapts to become better at the things we consistently ask it to do. Lifting weights sends a clear signal that we need stronger muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons, among other positive physical adaptations, but it needs to be done regularly to maintain this message. One or two times per week is a good place to start. Challenge: To provide a stimulus sufficient for triggering positive changes, strength training has to be somewhat challenging. After all, if an activity feels easy, why would the body need to adapt when it's already up to the task? This doesn't mean you need to lift incredibly heavy weights – 'challenging' is a term relative to the individual. Instead, experiment to find exercises, weights and target numbers of repetitions that cause you to feel the 'burn' in the target muscle, Matranga advises. Alternatively, you can perform repetitions until your muscles tire to the point that you are forced to involuntarily slow down your movements. Always stop short of the point when your technique breaks down, however. Progression: Doing the same workout, week in, week out, will initially deliver benefits for beginners – because they are new to strength training, they need less stress to trigger adaptations. But progress will soon plateau. To see continued results, progressive overload is needed. This refers to the process of gradually and incrementally increasing the difficulty of your workouts in line with your improving strength and fitness levels. The easiest ways to do this are increasing the weight you're lifting, upping the repetitions you're performing per set or raising the number of sets you complete of an exercise. For example, if the workout above starts to feel easy, the following week you could add a couple of kilograms to the dumbbells, aim for 20 repetitions per set rather than 15, or perform four sets of each exercise rather than three. What benefits can you expect to see after a few months of strength training? 'The first thing you're going to notice is improved energy and perception of energy,' says Matranga. 'You're going to feel like you have more juice. 'You will definitely notice you have more speed, power and balance in your movement too. I'm not saying you will be a freak athlete, but you will be able to get off the sofa easier and walk a little quicker.' These are the first impacts of strength training that his clients tend to report. They are soon followed by tangible changes to their bodies, both inside and out. '[With an appropriate diet] you might start to see changes – typical results with strength training are weight loss, of course, but also changes in muscularity,' Matranga continues. 'Glutes could be lifted, arms might be more toned or pecs might be firmer – the things a lot of us are looking for aesthetically. 'Then after a few months, that's when we can start to see real health improvements like better regulated blood sugar, better regulations of blood lipids, better bone density, better blood pressure and better heart health too.' Strength training isn't for me Matranga says he often experiences pushback from people who are hesitant to start strength training because of its somewhat bullish reputation. However, once they get started, it is the training modality he has 'had the best luck getting people to stick with'. 'Resistance training is so much safer than conventional wisdom has said over the last couple of decades,' he says. 'A lot of people think, 'If I go to the gym and do a deadlift, my back is going to explode, or I can't do squats because they are bad for my knees'. But if we actually look at the literature, resistance training is really safe. 'It's safer than running [and most sports] because it's very controlled and rehearsed. There's no dynamic movement, you're not on a slippery court or a field, so the injury risk in resistance training is very low.' He also says it is a good option for newcomers to exercise. Firstly, because strength lays the foundations for all other forms of exercise – you can't do any physical activity if your body is not strong enough to tolerate it – and secondly, because it is scalable. If you can't do a bench press, you can do a press-up. And if you can't do a press-up, you can drop your knees to the floor or elevate your hands to make the move more accessible. You can also use resistance machines in gyms to learn the movements behind certain exercises in a more stable environment. 'As with so many exercise modalities, the lowest barrier for entry is actually above most people's capability,' Matranga adds. 'I have never met a person who couldn't do a machine chest press or a cable lat pulldown or an assisted squat, so I really love that resistance training is beginner-friendly and safe, despite what many people think.' Of course, if you have any underlying health conditions, it is always worth checking with a medical professional before starting a new exercise plan. But Matranga's point still stands: strength training is far more accessible than most people realise, and the payout is immense.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Ten years after the Zika outbreak: What happened to the babies born with microcephaly?
When Rute Freires was told by a doctor that her newborn daughter Tamara wouldn't live long, she started crying had microcephaly - an abnormally small head - one of many conditions resulting from her mother being infected with the Zika virus while nine-years-old, Tamara eats through a stomach tube. Her hands are increasingly stiff and contracted and she has a hard time holding her head still."I was told early on that she wouldn't walk, she wouldn't speak nor smile," says Rute. "And yet I would ask every doctor I visited: 'My kid is going to walk, right?'"Rute's daughter is one of the nearly 2,000 babies born to women who contracted the mosquito-borne virus in Brazil between 2015 and then, the country was preparing to host the Olympics and the world watched with concern as the virus spread across Brazil as well as to dozens of other Love Stories: I went to Brazil to find out how families are coping A public health emergency was declared by the World Health Organization and Brazilian authorities, whose warning remained in place until May still not clear why the outbreak spontaneously ceased and it hasn't resurged over the past disappeared from the public eye, and families dealing with its long-lasting consequences have been largely to government figures, 261 children diagnosed with congenital Zika syndrome - a pattern of birth defects caused by infections during pregnancy - have died. Hundreds more have seen their health conditions is one of them. She lives in Maceió, a coastal city in north-eastern Brazil, where 75% of the cases of congenital Zika virus syndrome in the country were registered. Scientists still don't have a conclusive explanation of why that region was the most affected. Congenital Zika syndrome is characterised by heart problems, joint issues and difficulty co-ordinating chewing and swallowing. Most of those with it do not go through traditional development milestones like crawling, eating, walking, speaking or potty deal with the challenges of raising her daughter, Rute joined forces with other affected mothers. She first met them in a support group put together by local health authorities in 2016."There were so many kids with the same syndrome as Tamara. We started talking to each other, exchanging information… and things finally started to make sense."But life was still difficult. A year on, the women felt they weren't getting enough support from local authorities. So they formed an independent group, with bespoke yellow shirts, to help each other - and demand more. Moving in together Many of the mothers had stopped working and were living off state benefits of around $265 (£199; €230) per month - the minimum wage. They found themselves in legal battles against the healthcare system trying to secure surgeries, wheelchairs, medication and baby had been abandoned by their husbands - some of whom have remarried and formed new founder of the association, Alessandra Hora, says men rarely came to the group."I heard from many women that their husbands felt they were putting being a mother before the role of wife," she tells the women have found new ways of organising their lives. After making an application to public housing authorities, almost 15 were able to move into the same complex, where they've now lived for five years."Our goal was for them to live close to one another so they could help each other - to be the support network that most don't have," says started taking care of her grandson Erik, who has congenital Zika syndrome, after her son was murdered in their neighbourhood on the outskirts of Maceió.Rute moved to the Zika mothers' housing block after her became close to her neighbours Anne Caroline da Silva Rosa and Lenice França, whose children Moisés and Enzo also have congenital Zika syndrome. Like Tamara, Moisés eats through a feeding tube that comes out of his stomach. He can no longer stand, but he manages a faint smile when his little sister Maria covers him in hugs and is one of the few children with Zika-related microcephaly who has more autonomy. After many years in and out of hospitals, the nine-year-old is now able to walk and so close to one another means the mothers have been able to share tips on how to handle their children's complex health conditions. But there have been other benefits started taking night classes when Anne Caroline and Lenice offered to look after Tamara - meaning she could resume her studies and obtain a high-school can neither walk nor speak, as doctors predicted. A few years ago, she couldn't fix her gaze on an object either - but thanks to physical therapy she can now even recognise herself in the eyes follow her mother everywhere she goes. They usually stare at each other when Rute is cuddling with her on the couch and stroking her long curly hair. Winning higher compensation The mothers' decade-long battle for better financial assistance has also paid December, Brazil's Congress approved a bill introduced back in 2015 that would see families affected by Zika receive compensation of $8,800, and monthly payments of $1,325 - five times higher than the current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vetoed the bill, saying its financial implications were unclear. His administration had instead proposed a one-off payment of $10, like Mardjane Lemos, the doctor who diagnosed some of the first cases of Zika-related microcephaly, said this was far from enough. She argued that state authorities had failed the families on multiple levels - failing to contain the virus and under-compensating affected children for years. Alagoas state's health department said the virus situation in the region had improved in recent years thanks to their efforts in educating citizens to clear stagnant water and training health surveillance didn't respond to questions about how the state has supported families affected by Zika ultimately, the mothers were Lula's veto on the bill was overturned and they were told they would receive the full levels of compensation approved in the 2015 bill. Mysterious drop in cases Even though the number of Zika cases and births of babies with the syndrome have sharply dropped, a new outbreak is possible as the cause of the decline is still unknown, says Ms Lemos."The boom in cases seems to have spontaneously ceased. This leads to the theory that there is some natural immunity. But is that really the case? How long does it last? We do not know," she points out.A decade on from the outbreak, a lack of research has left many questions unanswered. For example, why was north-eastern Brazil so badly hit, especially poor women there?One study suggests that it might be related to maternal malnutrition. Another proposes that water contaminated with a bacteria may have produced a nerve-damaging toxin making the effects of the virus on the babies' brains worse. Congenital brain malformation researcher Patrícia Garcez and neuroscientist Stevens Rehen, who led the two projects respectively, have told the BBC they believe the answer may be a combination of these and other factors."We know a little more now [about] the environmental factors that may have contributed to the higher prevalence, but we don't fully understand how they have contributed," says Dr Garcez, who teaches at King's College London, highlighting the lack of research as a lack of research might have to do with the fact that those affected are predominantly poor, says Ms the uncertainty, winning the battle for compensation has given Rute a new sense of optimism for the future."I felt such joy when I heard the news, I wanted to scream," she she's aiming to get a qualification in education and a well-paid job. She wants private health insurance for Tamara and dreams of buying a car one day, to take her to medical appointments."Some of the mothers thought this day wouldn't come," she adds. "But I didn't give up hope."
