In the United States, in more than 100 years, there has been no outbreak of yellow fever (a mosquito-borne disease). But health care officials in the state of Florida are warning of the likelihood of a potentially serious epidemic in Brazil and further across South and Central America which might drive infested travelers to carry the virus to South Florida, home to the adequate mosquitoes and to the appropriate climate for the disease to propagate with ease.
In Brazil, 1,131 reported cases and about 340 deaths due to yellow fever have been confirmed since July 2017.
The yellow fever virus is more lethal than the Zika virus
Zika generated a stir because a number of infected pregnant women have delivered children with a fatal birth malformation, namely, the microcephaly which causes unusually small head and growth issues.
On the other hand, the yellow fever virus can be deadly.
The majority of those who become infected with yellow fever present minor symptoms such as headaches, chills, and fever. Thus, many infected people don’t give it too much importance, considering the symptoms as mild as it would be a cold or something similar.
Yellow fever is mosquito-borne which makes Florida the best environment for the virus to spread
Since March, the CDC keeps advising unvaccinated travelers to avoid going in areas of Brazil or South America where yellow fever outbreaks have been reported.
As in the case of Zika, the yellow fever virus is also mosquito-borne with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes being the perfect carriers for this virus, too, among Zika, dengue, and others.
As the rainy season commences in mid-May and will be on until mid-October in South Florida, the mosquitoes populations will have the perfect environment for their populations’ proliferation, thus, in the case of a yellow fever occurrence in Florida the situation might become very serious in a very short time, warn the experts.
