After notification of a case of yellow fever in Vargem Grande do Sul, in the interior of São Paulo, the capital of São Paulo decided to intensify vaccination against the disease. According to the SMS (Municipal Health Department), the patient was a 73-year-old, unvaccinated. Although the condition progressed to hospitalization, there was clinical improvement, and the man was cured. The case was the first confirmed in the state since 2020.
The north region of the city will be contemplated with vaccine reinforcements in this first stage, given the risk location of the “ecological corridors” and borders with the forests.
vaccination schedule
The vaccination schedule includes children under 5 years old, with one dose at 9 months and the other at 4 years old, in addition to all individuals over 5 years old, who receive a single dose, valid for life.
In the case of children who have not received the second dose by age 4, the vaccine can be given at any age.
Immunization is the main tool for preventing and controlling the disease, which is transmitted by vectors and has caused cases in different regions of the country in its wild cycle.
It is important that people who move to forest regions, also considering the Carnival holiday, are vaccinated.
The yellow fever vaccine has a period of ten days to create antibodies. Therefore, those who are going to travel to forest regions during Carnival and have not yet taken the immunizer should do so as soon as possible.
Immunizers are available in all basic health units and outpatient medical assistance from Monday to Friday, from 7 am to 7 pm, and in the Integrated AMAs/UBSs on Saturdays, also from 7 am to 7 pm.
Yellow fever is an acute infectious disease, with rapid evolution and high lethality in its most severe forms. It causes symptoms such as sudden fever, chills, headache, body pain, nausea, vomiting and weakness.
Infectologist Ivan França, from the Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, points out that the disease takes its name because it causes jaundice, that is, the skin and eyes turn yellow.
He explains that, in severe cases, yellow fever can cause liver failure or kidney failure, and may even lead to organ failure.
The mild condition usually lasts from three to four days, while the more severe forms may have symptoms for a longer period, with no determined common period.
Diseases that can cause yellowing of the skin and fever, such as dengue, zika and chikungunya, can cause confusion in the picture.
To differentiate them, it is necessary to know where the person has been previously (forest areas or abroad) and make the diagnosis through tests, and until the fifth day of the symptoms the most indicated test is the PCR.
From the sixth to the tenth day, in addition to the PCR, the IgG test can be performed to look for antibodies to the disease in the blood. From the tenth day onwards, it is necessary to carry out the IgM test.
The treatments, in general, are done in a palliative way, in order to alleviate the symptoms and, in severe cases, treatment through intensive therapies may be necessary.
disease history
After approximately half a century of epidemiological silence, the yellow fever virus was detected again in 2000, in the state of São Paulo.
Since its reintroduction, four outbreaks have been reported, with over 600 confirmed cases. Epidemic events of the disease were also recorded, starting in 2014, in Goiás and Tocantins, and continued towards the states of the Southeast and South.
In the municipality of São Paulo, in 2018, 121 cases of the disease were confirmed, of which 107 were imported cases and 14 were autochthonous (local).
In 2019 and 2020, the city had, respectively, three and one confirmed cases. In 2021 and 2022, there was no record of any cases of the disease.