Attachments
A. Situation Analysis
A.1 Description of the Disaster
Brazil reported an outbreak of yellow fever, a mosquito-borne viral infection, in December 2016. The outbreak predominantly affected the south-eastern states of Brazil, especially Minas Gerais and Espiritu Santo, and it was the largest outbreak of the disease in decades. On 13 January, the Ministry of Health declared a public health emergency in the state of Minas Gerais.
The largest number of new yellow fever cases occurred from January to early April 2017 (rainy season in southeast Brazil), mainly affecting municipalities in the states of Minas Gerais (1,147 reported cases, 446 confirmed cases and 159 deaths) and Espírito Santo (815 reported cases, 294 confirmed cases and 90 deaths). The incidence rate started to decrease in May 2017; however, the epidemic outbreak entered a new stage of geographical dispersion as it spread to municipalities in the States of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espiritu Santo.
According to the Ministry of Health's epidemiological report for yellow fever (no. 48 for July 2017), 3,564 completed reports were submitted, of which 777 cases were confirmed. A total of 261 people died from yellow fever, resulting in a fatality rate for confirmed cases of 33.5 percent. More than 98 per cent of confirmed cases were found in the southeastern states, and the most affected states in terms of number of confirmed cases were Minas Gerais (465), Espiritu Santo (467), Rio de Janeiro (23) and Sao Paulo (22).1
No new cases were reported after June 2017 due heavy rainfall, which destroyed mosquito-breeding sites. However, the vigilance around vector control remained high to prevent future outbreaks. On 6 September 2017, Brazil’s Ministry of Health declared an end to the yellow fever outbreak.