Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Yellow fever killed a person in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul, the southern state’s first death from the virus in more than four decades, indicating the lethal disease is spreading in Latin America.
The patient died in San Angelo city on Dec. 25 from an infection probably acquired in a rural area of Eugenio de Castro, the State Department of Health said in a Jan. 7 statement on its Web site. Laboratory tests confirmed the diagnosis, it said.
The patient, a 31-year-old housewife, is the state’s first yellow fever fatality since 1966, the Estadao newspaper reported Jan. 7 on its Web site. The case adds to a wave of infections in humans and monkeys in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Peru during the past 18 months, most of which were caused by infected mosquitoes circulating in jungle areas.
“This case is part of the outbreak in Argentina,” the International Society for Infectious Diseases said yesterday in an e-mail via its ProMED-mail program. “This is an illustration that infectious disease outbreaks do not respect political boundaries, emphasizing the need to focus surveillance on ecosystem areas rather than international limits.”
Tests are also being run on a person from Porto Alegre suspected on Jan. 6 of having yellow fever, according to the health department’s statement. The person had been in the city of Pirapo prior to becoming ill, it said. Neither of the two people tested had been vaccinated, State Health Secretary Osmar Earth said.
‘Devastating Outbreaks’
Earth said 500,000 doses of vaccine have been distributed to residents in areas at risk of the virus, which the World Health Organization says can cause fatal bleeding and spark “devastating outbreaks.”
Brazil recently changed the boundaries of its areas of risk for yellow fever transmission and vaccination recommendations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on its Web site updated Jan. 5. The southern, coastal area of Bahia state and the northern, coastal area of Espiritu Santo are no longer considered risk areas for yellow fever transmission, while the yellow fever risk areas have expanded in the states of Sao Paulo and Parana.
Yellow Fever has reemerged as a public health threat during the past two decades, spurred by the spread of the Aedes mosquito, a reduction in vaccination rates and increased global travel and urbanization, according to the WHO.
‘No Specific Treatment’
There is no specific treatment for the disease, which can cause fever, muscle ache and nausea. About one in seven sufferers develop severe complications, including hemorrhaging and kidney failure, from which only half survive, the Geneva- based WHO said.
Yellow fever circulates mostly among monkeys in jungles or forests. It can cause outbreaks in humans when a person infected in the jungle travels to an urban area and is bitten by an Aedes egypti mosquito, which subsequently transmits the virus to other susceptible people.
In June, two deaths were confirmed in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic center, the country’s Center for Epidemiological Surveillance said.
For Related News: Latin American health stories: TNI LATAM HEA
Last Updated: January 9, 2009 00:59 EST
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