Fever pitch: Yellow Fever in Brazil

I must have been asleep (or afflicted by a fever) for the past few weeks as I’d been blissfully unaware about the Yellow Fever outbreaks spreading across Brazil. Back in November I read about a monkey found dead from YF in a park in the north of São Paulo city, prompting authorities to offer vaccinations to residents living nearby. Understandably peple were worried as this was an area not considered at risk for YF. Fortunately, we didn’t live close to the park, so I thought no more about it.

Three months later, the country is gripped by panic. Fifty three people have confirmed to have died from YF between 1 July 2017 and 23 January 2018, with the health ministry registering 130 cases in the country. Although there were more confirmed cases (381) and deaths (127) in the same period in the previous year, the recent cases cover a larger area. Plus they include big cities with a denser population and places not previously considered at risk, notably the states (and city) of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. 

As people rushed to get themselves vaccinated, I awoke from my stupor and joined the masses standing in loooong queues at public health centres, known as postos de saúdes. I wasn't worried about me or my husband as we both had the YF vaccine about three years ago, but it was for my daughter, who’s just turned one. I went to our nearest posto last week (admittedly in the afternoon) and the last person in the long line told me not to bother as he'd got the last ticket for the day.

I could have paid R$250 (£56) to get the vaccine privately but private clinics do not have it and the postos have a limited number of vaccines per day, so in a city with a population with more than 20 million people that's a lot of queuing for several days. One friend waited for 10 hours, taking shifts with her former partner, to get her daughter vaccinated. My cleaner said she arrived at a posto 6am and took a chair with her. The security guard told me that people were queuing from 3am onwards even though the clinic didn't open until 7am.

Just to be clear, the threat of contracting the virus in urban areas is low. It is currently the wild form of the virus, spread primarily by the mosquitos inhabiting the foresty areas, where people face the biggest threat. However, in densely populated areas and with incidences in areas not previously considered at risk it wouldn't take much for it to soon become an urban problem if it was not controlled adequately.

Last week the government launched a mass vaccination campaign to vaccinate around 23.8 million people in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro using fractional dosing of the vaccine. This is a way to extend supplies and prevent the disease from spreading, offering protection for eight years. That is somewhat of a relief but we're not out of the woods yet. Now my panic is figuring out how to make sure my daughter is one of the 23.8 million people that will receive the vaccine.