Brasil: An Old Enemy

BRAZIL

An Old Enemy

Brazil has been hit with the worst outbreak of yellow fever in decades, with the deadly disease now encircling Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Yellow fever kills 3-8 percent of those who contract it, and the threat to the huge population centers represents the first potential urban epidemic for the country since 1942, the New York Times reported.

So far, there have been 237 deaths since the beginning of the hot season, but the fatality rate could spike if the disease hits the crowded slums – where standing water breeds mosquitoes and residents have little defense.

Yellow fever is transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which also spread dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever and other diseases. Brazil is now scrambling to vaccinate some 23 million people against it. But the disease is spreading at a pace of a mile a day in what has become a deadly race.

The vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective, according to the World Health Organization. But public health efforts have been impeded by dangerous rumors about fatal side effects, which in fact affect only one in a million.