Lack of Vaccination Exposes Minas Gerais to Yellow Fever

01/26/2017 - 13h58

Although cities in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais have been in the vaccination area recommended by the Ministry of Health for nearly a decade, the governments decided to ignore the clear advance of yellow fever in Brazil and left half of their population exposed to the virus.

Only 49.7% of the state's population received the vaccine in the last ten years, the vaccine's lifespan.

The high rate of people susceptible to the disease is one of the explanations for the outbreak in the state, which concentrates most of the cases of yellow fever in the country.

Since the beginning of the year, there have been 69 cases and 38 deaths in 18 cities of the state. There are also 485 patients undergoing analysis. Three other cases were confirmed in the state of São Paulo and one in Espírito Santo. Now, Brazil has the biggest yellow fever outbreak since 2000, when 85 cases were registered.

Before the current outbreak, Minas Gerais had registered its last case in 2009. Three years ago, however, reports of the Ministry of Health warned that it was important to reinforce prevention actions as cases in monkeys and humans were found in the country.

In the face of the outbreak, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday, January 25, that it will increase the distribution of the vaccine by 11.5 million doses.

In collaboration with ANGELA BOLDRINI, from Brasília

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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