Health Alerts

Residents of south and SE regions have been urged to get the yellow fever vaccination as peak season for the mosquito-borne infection arrives amid reports of deaths among monkeys, YF forest reservoirs, in the states of Paraná, São Paulo and Santa Catarina. The southern regions are mentioned specifically in view of ‘a large population and a low number of vaccinated people’. The January Epidemiological Bulletin lists by region the number of suspected and confirmed YF cases between July 2019 and Jan 2020, as well as epizootics.

GLOBAL monitoring of chikungunya and dengue fever published in the week 3 ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) named Brazil as one of four countries recording the most chikungunya cases since the Dec 20 update – the others were Thailand, India and Malaysia. The summary of dengue in 2019 revealed that Brazil’s dengue cases were 10 times higher than the previous year and accounted for more than 70% of dengue in the region – 2,201,000 cases. Notable upticks in dengue reporting were also seen in most SE Asian and Asian countries. Read more.