Brazil Travel Blog

Passengers beware! Brazil airline Varig has just announced it is cancelling all its flights from Mexico City, Madrid and Paris to Brazil. The flight from Mexico City to São Paulo will cease to operate on May 11, the flight from Madrid to São Paulo on May 12, and the flight from Paris to São Paulo on June 9. Be very careful as chances are the company will continue selling tickets for dates beyond the ones they will be operating flights on those routes.

Once again, we have to advice travellers to be extra careful when buying flights with Varig. The company announces and cancels routes on a whim, and the passenger is always caught unawares.

The considerable increase in the number of cases of dengue fever in Natal has forced its local authorities to declare state of emergency (Dengue: Prefeito Carlos Eduardo decreta estado de emergência).

In the first three months of 2008 there were 2.568 cases of dengue fever and 272 of hemorrhagic dengue fever, resulting in two deaths (in comparison, in the entire 2007 there were 6.107 cases of dengue fever and 163 of hemorrhagic dengue fever). The number of cases might seem small when compared with Rio de Janeiro, but do bear in mind Natal is considerably smaller than Rio. There are also reasons to suspect the number of deaths might be higher than what the authorities are acknowledging.

At the entry 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil you have the basics of what you need to know about dengue fever. If you are planning a trip to Natal, be informed beforehand. For the time being, we do not recommend cancelling your trips to the region.

We are informing about the situation in Rio at Dengue fever epidemic in Rio.

I’ve posted a similar warning, in Spanish, at Dengue en Natal.

Dengue fever is endemic in Brazil and each year it reaches epidemic proportions. In 2008, dengue fever is being felt in earnest in Rio de Janeiro, where the epidemic is particularly virulent this year. From the beginning of 2008, and only in the capital, there have been more than 50.000 cases of the disease with 51 people dying as a result. In the whole of the Rio de Janeiro state, more than 75.000 cases and 83 deaths [figures updated on April 15]. The public health system has collapsed and health assistance is precarious. The army has been sent it and field hospitals have been set up.

Most cases are concentrated around the capital, Rio de Janeiro. Of all the main tourist destinations on the state of Rio, only Angra dos Reis should be avoided at all costs, as the outbreak is quite virulent there as well. Paraty, Ilha Grande, Búzios, Cabo Frio and Arraial do Cabo are ok.

The situation is not likely to improve until the end of the rainy season, between June and July. You are strongly advise to reconsider a trip to Rio de Janeiro (the city) until the situation has improved considerably. The fact that famous (and wealthy) people have caught dengue fever in the city should give an indication of the size of the problem.

For more information, you are advised to read the post I wrote a few weeks ago: 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil

In the face of continuing misinformation on the current yellow fever situation in Brazil, I’ve dedicated some time to gather together a few facts about the crisis. The following text has been written by me and it is based on reliable Brazilian sources (listed at the end of the entry). Hope it clarifies all the doubts you might have.

1. There hasn’t been a new outbreak of yellow fever in Brazil insofar as yellow fever is endemic in the country.
2. There have been no cases of yellow fever in areas of Brazil where the disease wasn’t present before.
3. Yellow fever is only present in rural areas. Since 1942 there are no cases of yellow fever in the towns and cities of Brazil.
4. Only those visiting risk areas need to get vaccinated against yellow fever.
5. Tourists visiting risk-free areas do not need to take the vaccine. The vaccine has a series of well-documented side effects.
6. For the vaccine to be effective, it needs to be taken at least 10 days prior to travel.
7. Brazilian authorities are only asking for an International Certificate of Vaccination Against Yellow Fever to passengers coming from Angola, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, French Guiana, Liberia, Nigeria, Peru, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leona, Sudan, Venezuela and Zaire.
8. Yellow fever is transmitted through a mosquito bite.
9. The main symptoms of yellow fever are: fever, muscle pain, headache, shivers, nausea or vomiting. Symptoms appear between three and six days after becoming infected.
10. Treatment of yellow fever is supportive only. There is no specific medication to treat yellow fever. Victims of yellow fever need to be treated in hospital.

1. There has not been a new outbreak of yellow fever in Brazil insofar as yellow fever is endemic in the country. Cases are recorded every single year.

- in 2000: 85 cases, resulting in 40 deaths;
- in 2001: 41 cases, resulting in 22 deaths;
- in 2002: 15 cases, resulting in 6 deaths;
- in 2003: 64 cases, resulting in 23 deaths;
- in 2004: 5 cases, resulting in 3 deaths;
- in 2005: 3 cases, resulting in 3 deaths;
- in 2006, 2 cases, resulting in 2 deaths;
- in 2007, 6 cases, resulting in 5 deaths.

In recent years the number of cases of yellow fever had decreased considerably. The number of cases recorded in the first three weeks of 2008 outnumbers the figures for the last four years together. Yellow fever seems to be back in force in 2008.

2. There have been no cases of yellow fever in areas of Brazil where the disease wasn’t present before. The cases registered in 2008 were of people who were not vaccinated and got infected in risk areas.

3. Yellow fever is only present in rural areas. Since 1942 there are no cases of yellow fever in the towns and cities of Brazil. The measures taken by Brazilian authorities aim at preventing the reappearence of urban yellow fever. For that to happen, someone would have to be bitten my a mosquito in a rural area. That person would then travel to an urban area, and would be bitten again by another mosquito that would, from then on, carry the yellow fever virus.

4. Only those visiting risk areas need to get vaccinated against yellow fever.
There have been no changes to the advice given by Brazilian authorities. ONLY those travelling to risk areas should be vaccinated. Brazilian health authorities are dividing the country in four large areas:

• risk areas. Those where yellow fever is endemic and the virus is at large in rural areas. The states included in this area are Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Distrito Federal (Brasilia), Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins.
• potential risk areas. Areas where there have been no cases recorded but where they could hypothetically occur. This area includes the state of Espírito Santo and the south of the state of Bahia.
• transition areas. Areas where there have been no cases recorded but have boundaries with risk areas. This are includes the western borders of the states of Paraná, Piauí, Santa Catarina and São Paulo.
• risk-free areas. Areas where there have been no cases recorded and the likelihood of them happening is null. This area includes a sizeable part of the Brazilian coast, including most tourist destinations.

5. Tourists visiting risk-free areas do not need to take the vaccine. The vaccine has a series of well-documented side effects.
Suddenly, everyone wants to get vaccinated against yellow fever, regardless of whether they are planning to visit risk zones or not. All vaccines have side effects, and the vaccine against yellow fever is no exception. Getting vaccinated for the sake of it is being discouraged.

6. For the vaccine to be effective, it needs to be taken at least 10 days prior to travel.
In Brazil at least, people embarking on trips to risk areas are taking the vaccine as they are about to begin their journey. You need to take the vaccine at least 10 days before you begin your journey to risk areas. The vaccine is valid for ten years. You should *not* get a booster before the end of that 10-year period.

7. Brazilian authorities are only asking for an International Certificate of Vaccination Against Yellow Fever for passengers coming from Angola, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, French Guiana, Liberia, Nigeria, Peru, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leona, Sudan, Venezuela and Zaire. It doesn’t matter where your entry point into Brazil is, you will not be asked for a certificate unless you have been recently to any of the countries listed above.

8. Yellow fever is transmitted through a mosquito bite.
You can’t catch yellow fever from a fellow human being. In the rural areas, the Haemagogus mosquito is the carrier of the yellow fever virus. In urban areas, it is the notorious Aedes aegypti mosquito, responsible as well for transmitting dengue fever to humans.

9. The main symptoms of yellow fever are: fever, muscle pain, headache, shivers, nausea or vomiting. Symptoms appear between three and six days after becoming infected.
In 15% of the cases symptoms can include also jaundice, bleeding and a series of complications. Yellow fever symptoms are very similar to those of dengue fever. For that reason, the diagnosis can only be confirmed after a series of lab tests.

10. Treatment of yellow fever is supportive only. There is no specific medication to treat yellow fever. Victims of yellow fever need to be treated in hospital.

VERY IMPORTANT: the medical information contained on this entry has been put together with responsible care. However, I am no health professional, and medical advice must be sought from doctors and other health professionals.

SOURCES:
On the Portal da Saúde from the Brazilian Ministry of Health up-to-date information on the yellow fever crisis can be found (in Portuguese only). There is a page in English, hidden under a subdomain at the same site, with basic information on yellow fever - but no specific mention to the current crisis (Febre amarela).

In Tourist Support Recommendations: Vaccines from the Brazilian Tourism portal there are general recommendations from the Brazilian authorities to tourists travelling to the country.

SEE ALSO: 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil

If walking outdoors is your kind of thing, you are likely to come across a couple of quero-queros (Southern Lapwing, Vanellus chilensis), a very common bird in South America outside the Amazon basin and the Andean region.

Quero-queros build their nests on the ground. If someone comes close to the nests, they defend them very aggresively. Quero-queros gave us a bit of a rough time at the Lençóis Maranhenses last year. We were unlucky enough to find ourselves strolling along a succession of quero-quero nests for more than an hour. During that time, we were mercilessly harrassed by the birds, having to duck the entire time to avoid being hit by their spurs. When we left the proximity of a nest in the belief we were now on safe ground, we would invariably enter the proximity of yet another nest, being the target of yet more low-level flights. It was quite an unpleasant experience although completely understandable.

If you ever come across a couple of quero-queros defending their nests, go away as far as you can. They mean business.

Just a reminder that if your arrive in Brazil from abroad and have a domestic flight connection, you will have to get your baggage from the conveyor belt at your first entry point in the country, go through customs, and check in your luggage again. Standard procedure.

A reader of this blog wrote in despair a couple of days ago from the States. Her husband was in Brazil, he had arrived in the country right in the middle of the chaotic situation Brazilian airports are facing at the moment. He had taken a GOL connecting flight from Rio to São Paulo and his luggage was nowhere to be seen. His luggage contained all his belongings. GOL staff were not helping at all and all attempts to contact the company on the phone were fruitless. What could he possibly do?

At times like this I feel really powerless. I do not work for the tourism & travel industry so the most I can do is try and give some basic and sensible advice, knowing perfectly well my words might not go a very long way, given the shambles Brazilian airports have become.

In any case, should you find yourself in a similar situation, this is my advice:

• do not leave the airport. Once you do that, your chances of contacting the airline on the phone are slim. Right now, getting through to somebody on the telephone is just something that is not going to happen. The whole system has collapsed.
• at the airport, try to talk to someone from the airline and get a document in writing stating your luggage hasn’t turned up.
• go to the ANAC office at the airport and file a complaint. ANAC is the Brazilian’s government regulatory body supposedly responsible for defending passenger’s rights.

None of this actions will guarantee you will get your luggage back. But being away from the airport is even more unlikely to yield any results.

I’m glad to report our reader’s luggage finally turned up.

If you are coming to Brazil and are planning to take domestic flights, you should avoid at all costs Congonhas airport in São Paulo. An tragedy like the one last week is unlikely to happen in the short term again. The problem is that the chaos that descended on Congonhas after the accident last week is still there in force. Out of 215 scheduled flights today, 167 were cancelled and 18 took off with a delay of more than 1 hour. Those with a cancelled flight are having to wait two or three days until they are realocated onto another flight.

To make things worse, a couple of hours ago there was a landslide right at the end of the runway where the TAM Airbus left the airport before crashing last week. The runway ends on a steep decline, and part of that decline has come down. It would seem that when the Airbus went through the end of the runway it damaged the drainage system of that part of the airport.

Keep an eye on this spot, there’s plenty more news coming. Among them, a substantial increase of air fares in Brazil, fares that had had for a good while prices similar to those of the first world.

In Brazil, some hotels and pousadas charge a taxa de serviço (generally 10%), others don’t. When finding out prices for accommodation, it is advisable to ask whether that taxa de serviço is included or not in the price.

In places that have nothing to hide, their price list will show clearly whether the tax is charged on top of the price of the room (”Taxa de serviço 10%“), whether it is already included on the price (”10% Taxa de serviço já inclusa“) or whether there is no charge at all (”Não cobramos taxa de serviço“). When that information is not present, do find out what is the final price you will end up paying.

Dishonest hoteliers - and absolute minority, to be fair to them, hide that tax only for it to make an unwelcome appearance on your final bill.

It’s on the news: there’s a virulent outbreak of dengue fever in Ubatuba - as well as in other less visited points of the coast of São Paulo, such as Itanhaém. A few minutes ago, a specialist on dengue gave her advice: do not travel to the area. If you really have to, be very careful and remember that the only prevention against dengue is avoiding being bitten by the mosquito that carries the disease. Dengue fever is the topic of an entry on this blog.

This year’s dengue epidemic is particularly virulent. Only last week 37,000 new cases of dengue fever were registered by the authorities - most of them in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

SEE ALSO:
- 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil
- Dengue fever epidemic in Rio
- Dengue fever in Natal