Minas Gerais declares yellow fever ‘state of emergency’

The government of Minas Gerais state in southeastern Brazil decreed Saturday a public health emergency situation in three regional state for six months because of yellow fever. The measure covers the regional health units of the municipalities of Belo Horizonte, Itabira and Ponte Nova – 94 cities in total, according to a Jornal do Brazil report (computer translated).

The decree signed by governor Fernando Pimentel authorizes the adoption of administrative measures necessary to contain the outbreak, especially the public acquisition of supplies and materials. In addition, the measure ensures the contracting of services necessary to attend to the emergency situation.

With the second period of epidemiological monitoring of cases of yellow fever in Minas Gerais, from July last year to the beginning of this year, 22 cases of the disease were confirmed in the state. According to the State Department of Health, of these, 15 resulted in death. During this period, 40 suspected cases were ruled out, and 46 cases were investigated in 24 municipalities.

Related: Yellow fever vaccine recommended for travelers to São Paulo; Netherlands report imported case

Currently, the accumulated vaccine coverage of yellow fever in the state of Minas Gerais is around 82%. According to an epidemiological report released on Wednesday , it is estimated that there are just over 3 million people who have not yet been vaccinated, especially in the age group of 15 to 59 years, which was also the most affected by the epidemic of wild yellow fever occurred in 2017. </s> BRASILIA – Brazil’s south-eastern state of Minas Gerais declared a public health emergency on Saturday following an outbreak of yellow fever in nearly 100 cities over the last several months.

Yellow fever is a disease caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.

The decree allows the government to hire health workers without a bidding process, and buy emergency materials. The emergency will be in place for six months.

At least 15 people have died of yellow fever in the state since December, according to the BBC. Since July 2017, 35 cases have been confirmed in Brazil and 20 have died, health ministry data showed.

In Minas Gerais alone, 475 cases were confirmed between January and June 2017, and 162 people died.

A mass vaccination program is under way in three southern states of the country. The World Health Organization has said that the Sao Paulo state is also at risk and has advised travellers to get vaccinated. Minas Gerais is the hardest hit state. </s> SAO PAULO — The government of Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais has decreed a state of emergency for its public health system due to an outbreak of yellow fever in 94 of its 853 cities.

The decree was published Saturday in the state’s official gazette and allows the government to contract health providers without going through a bidding process.

Since July 2017, 35 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in Brazil and 20 people have died, according to the latest figures from the health ministry.

The World Health Organization said earlier this week that all of Sao Paulo state is also at risk for yellow fever and recommended that international visitors to be vaccinated. </s> Two people died in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo from negative reactions to yellow fever vaccinations at a time when thousands of people are jamming into medical centers to be immunized, in view of the big increase in deaths from the disease, officials announced Friday.

As Municipal Health Secretary Wilson Pollara stated on the G1 online news site, the victims were two people with "low immunity," a woman age 76 and a man whose identity has not yet been revealed.

The vaccine is currently recommended for those between the ages of nine months and 59 years. People older than that need a medical exam to find out the state of their immunological system and to see if they have a high risk of being contaminated by the disease or not.

Dr.Expedito Luna, an epidemiologist and professor with the Tropical Medicine Institute at the University of Sao Paulo, said on G1 that since the year 2000 it has been identified in Brazil and other places in the world that a small proportion of those who are vaccinated could develop a serious case of the yellow fever itself.

"In the study of those rare cases with adverse reactions, it turned out to be common among those over age 60, with diseases of the thymus and autoimmune system, which led to a greater restriction of administering the vaccine in those cases," the doctor said.

Specialists categorize two types of yellow fever, which are differentiated by the infecting mosquito: one is the "wild" kind transmitted by the Haemagogus and the Sabethes species, which mainly attack the macaque - and the "urban" type, which transmits the Aedes aegypti, also the vector of dengue, zika and chikungunya.

For several years, however, not one case of yellow fever caused by the urban type has been recorded.

Southeast Brazil, chiefly the states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, for several weeks have seen an outbreak of this infectious viral disease that is transmitted by mosquito bites and has caused at least 15 deaths. </s> SAO PAULO — Eight employees of Brazilian mining giant Vale have been arrested in connection with the investigation into last month’s collapse of a mining dam that killed at least 166 people and left 147 missing in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

The state’s prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the employees were arrested Friday.

They will be held “under temporary custody” for 30 days to determine whether they have responsibility for the Jan. 25 collapse.

Those arrested include four managers and four members of technical teams in charge of monitoring the stability of the dam located near the city of Brumadinho.

Brazil research institute Fiocruz recently said the contamination of the ecosystem and the Paraopeba River could precipitate the spread of dengue, yellow fever or diarrhea in the area. </s> Brazilians lined up for hours to get yellow fever vaccinations, alarmed by the increase in the number of fatal cases of infection and a warning from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to tourists visiting parts of the country.

In Belo Horizonte, a city in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais, people had to wait up to seven hours for a shot because health centres were not prepared for the surge in demand, a state spokesman said.

People were being turned away at some health centres in Minas Gerais and in the southeastern state Sao Paulo because vaccines and syringes had run out, Brazilian media reported.

The WHO said last week that Sao Paulo state, which includes South America's largest city, Sao Paulo, should be considered at risk for yellow fever and recommended foreign travellers get vaccinated before visiting.

But Brazil's Health Ministry said the recommendation, coming weeks before Carnival, an event for which thousands of tourists descend on Brazil, would not cause it to change its advisory that only travellers going to rural areas be vaccinated.

All known cases of infection were in rural areas. - REUTERS

Research carried out in part by a "robot scientist" with artificial intelligence (AI) has found that a common ingredient of toothpaste could be developed to fight strains of malaria.

In a study in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Britain's Cambridge University said the ingredient, triclosan, showed the potential to interrupt infections at two critical stages - in the liver and blood.

After being transferred into a host via a mosquito bite, malaria parasites work their way into the liver. They then move into red blood cells, multiply and spread, causing potentially life-threatening complications.

Scientists have known that triclosan can halt malaria parasites' growth at the blood stage by inhibiting the action of an enzyme known as enoyl reductase. In toothpaste, this helps prevent build-up of plaque bacteria.

In this latest work, scientists found that triclosan also inhibits a different enzyme of the parasite, called dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR).

This enzyme is the target of the antimalarial pyrimethamine - a drug to which the parasites are increasingly developing resistance. The Cambridge team's work showed that triclosan was able to target and act on DHFR even in drug-resistant parasites. - REUTERS

Depression and anxiety afflict Americans concerned with the fate of the environment, showed a study of the mental health effects of climate change.

Most hard-hit are women and people with low incomes who worry about the planet's long-term health, said the study published this week in the journal Global Environmental Change.

"Climate change is a persistent global stressor," said Sabrina Helm, lead author of the paper and professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona.

The study involved 342 online surveys of respondents whose views broadly reflect the wider US population, researchers said. - REUTERS
The state government of Minas Gerais, Brazil, declares a health emergency in three areas, Belo Horizonte, Itabira and Ponte Nova, over an outbreak of yellow fever.