Brasília, January 20, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - People traveling to regions where there are jungles, forests, and waterfalls should be vaccinated for yellow fever. As Carnaval draws near, the Ministry of Health warns that these locales are breeding grounds for the mosquito that transmits the disease. There have been 119 cases of yellow fever in Brazil in the last three years.

According to the secretary of Health Inspection, Jarbas Barbosa, the chief host of yellow fever is the monkey, present in the country's jungles and forests. He refers to the importance of the vaccine, which is available at any Brazilian health post. "Even those going to jungle and forest regions they're familiar with for a long time should be vaccinated. A diseased monkey might have entered that jungle or forest. If a mosquito bites the infected monkey and then bites a person, it transmits the disease."

Barbosa adds that the vaccine is free and provides protection against yellow fever for ten years. Ideally, it should be applied ten days prior to the trip, so that the organism will have time to build its own defenses.

There are two types of yellow fever: urban, which was controlled and erradicated in 1942, and wild, which is constantly on the rise. According to the Ministry's data, Brazil presented 63 cases of wild yellow fever in 2003, 23 of which were fatal. Some of the symptoms of the disease are high fever and malaise. Yellow fever attacks the human liver and can cause death. (DAS)

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