The Only Municipality to Issue an Alert on Yellow Fever Becomes a Disease-Free Island

02/14/2017 - 12h13

Franciscópolis, a municipality in the countryside of Minas Gerais - neighboring some of the municipalities that have most been affected by the yellow fever outbreak - stands out among others for not having even a single potential case of yellow fever.

The municipality, which has a population of 5,700 people, most of whom live rural areas, has become an "island" surrounded by affected regions.

It is not far from Ladainha, which leads the country both in terms of cases of the fever and in terms of yellow fever-related deaths.

Part of the explanation may have to do with several measures that were adopted months ago by Kênia Moreira, the nurse and coordinator of the Health Surveillance Secretary.

At the end of September, she heard residents complaining about monkeys that were "disappearing" from the forests, leading her to suspect of a possible yellow fever outbreak.

This possibility made her request backup from the Regional Superintendency of Health in the city of Teófilo Otoni, so they could help analyse the dead animals.

Even though the samples collected were inconclusive - the monkeys that were found had been dead for over 48 hours - the hunch led the municipality to boost campaigns in rural zones alerting residents of dead monkeys, and vaccinate residents living in both communities where cases arose.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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