Infected animals were found on the USP campus in Ribeirão Preto; Ministry of Health promises to send 600,000 doses to the state
After being notified that 4 monkeys from campus from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of São Paulo, tested positive for yellow fever, the Ministry of Health decided to send 100,000 extra doses of vaccine to the state of São Paulo to intensify immunization against the disease.
Although sick monkeys do not transmit the disease, they are an indication of the virus circulating. Primates are the main hosts of the virus, but the only vectors of transmission are mosquitoes. In the wild, mosquitoes bite monkeys which, after being infected by the virus, can be bitten by another vector and this, in turn, transmits the disease to humans.
According to Ribeirão Preto city hall, no records of yellow fever in humans have currently been observed in the city. Even so, the ministry considers it important to intensify vaccination against yellow fever because this is one of the recommendations for controlling cases and preventing the disease.
The yellow fever vaccine is part of the immunization schedule and is available in all health centers in the state of São Paulo. Since 2017, Brazil has adopted a vaccination schedule of just one dose for a lifetime, a measure that is in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Also this January, the ministry reported that it will distribute more than 600,000 routine doses of this vaccine to São Paulo.
The disease
Yellow fever is an acute febrile infectious disease that is caused by a virus, transmitted by the bite of a wild mosquito, which lives in a forested area, and there is no direct transmission from person to person. The initial symptoms of yellow fever are fever, chills, severe headache, back pain, body aches, nausea and vomiting, fatigue and weakness. The vaccine is the main tool for preventing yellow fever.
In Brazil, the disease cycle is currently wild, with transmission through mosquitoes. The last cases of urban yellow fever were recorded in the country in 1942.
With information from .
