Spatiotemporal Evolution of the Yellow Fever Epidemic in Southeast Brazil from 2016 to 2019

Abstract

Background:

Yellow fever (YF) is a zoonotic disease transmitted by mosquitoes among humans and nonhuman primates. Although urban YF is eradicated, the sylvatic YF has reemerged in some areas of Brazil in the twenty-first century. From 2016 to 2019, a sylvatic YF epidemic occurred in Southeast Brazil, where it had been eradicated in the 1940s.

Methods:

This study’s objective was to describe the epidemic in the states of the Southeast region, based on descriptive, cluster, and mobility analyses.

Results:

Both the descriptive and cluster analyses showed that the YF cases spread from the state of Minas Gerais southward, causing peaks in cases during the summer months. None of the state capitals was included in the clusters, but the connectivity between the municipalities in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo highlighted potential paths of spread. Despite differences in sociodemographic profiles between the Southeast and North of Brazil (the latter region considered endemic), the epidemiological profile was similar, except for patients’ occupation, which was not related to rural work in the Southeast.

Conclusion:

The results contributed to our understanding of the paths by which YF spread across Southeast Brazil and the epidemiological profile in an area that had gone decades without autochthonous cases.