Brazil: no risk of yellow fever despite 2 deaths

The health ministry has asked a Rio-based foundation to double production of a yellow fever vaccine from 15 million to 30 million doses in 2008, and recommended that Brazilians traveling to rural areas be vaccinated 10 days in advance.

“The situation is absolutely under control,” Temporao told a news conference. “There is no need for mass vaccination, no epidemic. What we’re doing is adequate.”

Eight suspected cases of yellow fever, a deadly virus spread by mosquitoes, are under investigation in Brazil, Secretary of Health Vigilance Gerson Penna said.

Fears of the disease, piqued by reports that a group of wild monkeys were found dead with symptoms, prompted at least 230,000 people to seek free vaccinations at Brasilia clinics between Dec. 29 and Jan. 7, state media reported.

On Wednesday, an extra 250,000 doses of vaccine were sent to the capital, and the Brasilia National Park, where the dead monkeys were found, remained closed, Temporao said.

While yellow fever has been largely eradicated, Brazil was last year wracked by a wave of dengue fever that spread across Latin America and the Caribbean. Some 438,949 cases and 98 deaths were reported in the first seven months of 2007 in Brazil alone.

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