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One year after the yellow fever epidemic that left nearly 200 people dead in São Paulo, the virus spreads south and worries health authorities in the region.
In Paraná, the first indigenous case of the disease over ten years was confirmed this week: a 21-year-old man from the coastal town of Antonina (PR), who had never been vaccinated.
Virus-infected monkeys were found dead on the state's coast, in forested areas – the region where the virus is spreading.
Other cases of primates suspected of yellow fever are under investigation in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, but without confirmation.
"It's a virus that goes down south," says virologist Cláudia Nunes Duarte dos Santos, researcher. from Fiocruz Paraná.
At present, only a suspicion of wild-type yellow fever has been reported, with transmission in rural or forest areas. It is through these green corridors that the virus disperses and it is so that the state of São Paulo arrived last year
in Paraná, the coast, with a wide band of Atlantic forest, is the most threatened place.
In the neighboring state of Santa Catarina, only 10.6% of the population of the State of Santa Catarina is located in the state of Santa Catarina. The population to be vaccinated has sought health posts until this month, a goal "much lower than expected," according to the state government.
In Rio Grande do Sul, an alleged case of yellow fever is still under investigation.
This is the coverage index in the municipalities of East Santa Catarina, which became the recommended vaccination area in September of last year. ] "It is imperative that people be vaccinated. [A ocorrência do vírus] is in a tourist area very visited, in summer," says Santos.
The main concern is to prevent the virus from reaching urban areas and to be transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. This has not been the case in Brazil since the eradication of urban yellow fever in the 1940s.
States emphasize that there is no shortage of vaccine, quite the opposite: the Ministry of Health has been distributing additional doses since last year. when they became recommended areas for vaccination.
"We have a super effective, free, and available vaccine that has been successfully applied for nearly a hundred years," says virologist Fiocruz.
It is recommended for people aged nine months to 59 years. have never been vaccinated. A single dose is enough to sustainably protect your whole life.
Researchers also warn against unnecessary killing of animals: monkeys that appear dead from yellow fever, according to Santos, are victims and not vectors. Mosquitoes transmit the virus.
"We call him a sentinel monkey: when he dies, it's the signal that the virus is circulating and serves to alert surveillance. It's essential."
This week, Fiocruz's laboratory received a dead monkey in Paraná with a bullet in the forehead. "We were very angry, the animal is not to blame," says the virologist.
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