Brazil is losing its war on deadly viruses
A manhunt is taking place in recent days in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. But, this time it is not the police involved but health inspectors. "We're beating every inch of all urban areas. In the coming hours we will push even in the most isolated rural areas. So that no one, I mean no one, is excluded from vaccination." To speak with a peremptory tone, is the Secretary of Health of the city of Caratinga, John Corrêa da Silva. In fact, the government of Minas Gerais has decreed a state of emergency for the yellow fever. Now 152 cities are monitored and vaccines will be available to the entire population. So much so, for days long queues in front of public health care buildings give the extent of patient concern.
"I had never seen such a thing," says João, 62 years old. He belongs to an age group normally not vaccinated for yellow fever. But health officials decided to break all age limits. The fear that the virus reap other deaths - besides the 53 counted by early January - is in fact very high.
Among others, the mosquito Aedes aegypti transmits yellow fever. A “killer mosquito” as they call now in Brazil because it has been responsible for the large outbreak of zika too. But not only that. Aedes aegypti also transmits dengue and chikungunya. Diseases with similar symptoms such as extreme fatigue, joint pain, and high fever. Even spots on the skin in some cases.
According to a team of biologists of Fiocruz, behind the yellow fever outbreak there is the largest environmental disaster ever known in Brazil, Mariana. In November of 2015, two dams controlled by a mining company, Samarco, broke down. The sudden overflow of a mountain of mud sowed disaster. Many people and animals died. Those who survived had to deal with a completely devastated environment. Many animals, including macaques that are amplifiers of the disease, found themselves faced with a shortage of food and terrible sanitary conditions, and would be weakened by contracting many diseases, including yellow fever.
And to worry even more the Brazilian scientists, another virus between the states of Bahia and Ceara has already killed 3 people in few weeks. Nicknamed "the dark urine virus", it causes severe muscle and kidney pain. But, most of all, a very dark color of urine, like Coca Cola. The fact that it appeared in coastal regions, where untreated sewage are often discharged into the sea, made Brazilian scientists suppose it was a virus linked to the unhealthy conditions of the local sewers.
"From there human contamination is a snap. A sip of water or a bit of raw vegetables and a person with a lower immune system is infected" says Professor Gubbio Soares of the Federal University of Bahia, author of a study on the topic.
To sum up, the virus war continues to give no respite to Brazil with new people affected by dengue and zika. The zika, in particular, maintains a high alert for the researchers. Children with microcephaly (ie by a small skull and reduced neurological and motor skills) not only continue to be born, but complications are more and more frequent. Some of these children are born with blindness while on twins, some are born healthy and others sick, who knows why. Not only in Brazil but also all over the world, scientists are working a complicated puzzle without arriving at a complete knowledge of the virus. Virus for which, it is good to remember, there is no vaccine, and in front of which, thus, the whole Brazil is unprotected.
The country needs new and better health policies able to prevent the problem. The Aedes aegypti proliferates with high temperatures, and in the stagnant water. The government does little, and the poorest living in favelas and suburbs that lack of all hygienic conditions pays the highest price.