One outstanding feature of winter in the southeast and southern regions of Brazil is the presence of thick morning fog. Between June and September the airports of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are often forced to halt their operations due to heavy fog. The international airport of Guarulhos in São Paulo (also known as Cumbica) was built on an area that in the tupi-guarani language means “dense fog”. No wonder the airport is often a victim of the phenomenon. When an airport is closed flights are diverted to other cities. Brazilian airports are not equipped with advanced instrument landing systems allowing pilots to land with no visibility.

Unfortunately for passengers arriving from Europe, the time of the arrival of the majority of planes from the northern hemisphere coincides with the formation of fog. Our advice is, if you are arriving in the southern states of Brazil early in the morning during winter (in the southern hemisphere) make sure you leave plenty of time if you are planning on catching a connecting flight right away.

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On 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil, our main entry devoted to dengue fever on this blog, we explained how the dengue epidemic coincides with the rainy season. What with the rainy season well under way, dengue is back to the headlines: Risco de dengue deixa em estado de alerta 17 capitais, diz ministério. Alert on 17 capitals due to the risk of dengue fever. Among the capitals mentioned there are plenty of important tourist destinations such as Aracaju, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Maceió, Manaus, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador de Bahía, São Luís, Recife or Vitória.

Our advice:

1. Do not panic. Dengue fever is endemic. It appears every year in most of the country.
2. Be informed. Read 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil to know more about the disease and to learn how to prevent becoming a victim of dengue fever.
3. When you reach your destination, seek up-to-date information locally. There isn’t a single online source with up-to-date information on dengue fever on all the destinations mentioned above.

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RELATED POSTS:
10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil
10 facts about yellow fever in Brazil
swine flu in Brazil

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Most of you will be aware of the tragedy in Ilha Grande that resulted in the loss of 31 lifes.

The situation

The situation on the island has become a hot topic among many travelers who were heading to Ilha Grande on the coming weeks and months. Reliable information is scarce and hard to come by. So far the best resource I have found is the following page. It is updated on a daily basis. As it is in Portuguese I am going to translate and summarize here the main points covered there:

• All is normal in the Vila do Abraão, the main village on the island. There have been some sporadic power cuts but they are a common occurrence during the high season.
• All is normal with the boats sailing to the Vila do Abraão. Sailing schedules have not been affected.
• There are currently no diversions on the roads leading to Angra dos Reis.
• The beaches of Araçatiba, Matariz, Praia Vermelha, Provetá and Sítio do Forte, on the continent side of the island, have had no electricity for nearly a week. Phone lines are not working either (only cellphones are in operation). The landslide at Enseada do Bananal destroyed the power lines leading to the beaches I’ve just mentioned.
• Enseada do Bananal is off the tourist circuit for the time being.

I will be updating this information as new facts emerge.

My advice

Unless you are heading to Bananal or Araçatiba and the other beaches mentioned above, there is no particular reason to cancel or postpone your trip to Ilha Grande. Vila do Abraão is perfectly ok and you will be able to do all the treks and sails around the island as if nothing had happened.

If you are heading to Araçatiba, get in touch with your pousada to find out the latest on the power supply situation. There are electricity generators in action but they are just a poor substitute to proper power supply.

Heavy rains on the coming days might imply on changes to road conditions on the continent. I will post any changes here.

Blog resources on Ilha Grande

We have a detailed destination card on Ilha Grande, as well as a annotated map of Ilha Grande.

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A few days ago we learned of the closure by the authorities of the floating port of Manaus. It is at the floating port where all the liners and cruise ships dock. The reason for the closure is lack of safety due to negligent maintenance of the premises (you can read the full story in Portuguese at the Estado de São Paulo).

In the meantime, the situation is quite confusing. The news report quoted above mentions that an American liner was diverted by the Brazilian navy to the port of Chibatão (a merchant port on the outskirts of Manaus). Then a local jugde granted the ship the right to dock at the floating port – next to the center of the city.

We got in touch with Embratur to find out more about the situation. Through its Flickr profile (@VisitBrasil) we were told that work is in progress at the floating port and that it is estimated it will reopen in January.

In the meantime, our advice is, if you are heading to Manaus, get in touch with your travel agent for more up-do-date information of the implications of the port closure.

P.S.: smaller boats and regional transport continues to operate as usual at the improvised harbour near the market of Manaus.

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Manaus

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updates:

• from 1 January 2010 till 3 April 2010, 50 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 29 Oct 2009, 1368 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 23 Sep 2009, 1047 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 16 Sep 2009, 899 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 10 Sep 2009, 731 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 02 Sep 2009, 657 deaths resulting from the disease. Continues discrepancies between the death toll figures issued by the governments of the different Brazilian states and the Ministry of Health means I will no longer update the tally for individual states. A very clear picture has emerged where the southern states are, by far, the most affected by the flu epidemic.
• 31 Aug 2009, 575 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 27 Aug 2009, according to official figures, the number of new cases of swine flu is decreasing throughout the country. The 1st week of August registered 1,578 serious cases, the 2nd week the number went down to 826 and on the 3rd week there were 273 new cases.
• 26 Aug 2009, 557 deaths resulting from the disease. Most deaths have occurred in the southeastern and southern states of the country: São Paulo (223 deaths), Paraná (151), Rio Grande do Sul (98) and Rio de Janeiro (55) lead the toll. The number of cases on the north and northeast regions is very small.
• 21 Aug 2009, 488 deaths resulting from the disease. Florianópolis and 19 other cities from the state of Santa Catarina declare emergency status due to the advance of swine flue.
• 20 Aug 2009, 404 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 18 Aug 2009, media reports fall in the number of influenza A cases attended at São Paulo hospitals.
• 18 Aug 2009, 379 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 14 Aug 2009, 339 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 12 Aug 2009, 274 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 10 Aug 2009, 191 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 07 Aug 2009, 167 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 04 Aug 2009, 129 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 03 Aug 2009, 92 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 01 Aug 2009, 76 deaths resulting from the disease.
• 31 Jul 2009, 68 deaths resulting from the disease. To control the spread of the virus, classes will resume two weeks later than usual in several states, including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
• 28 Jul 2009, 55 deaths resulting from the disease
• 27 Jul 2009, 45 deaths resulting from the disease
• 26 Jul 2009, 39 deaths resulting from the disease
• 24 Jul 2009, 1566 cases of swine fever confirmed and 33 deaths resulting from the disease
• 22 Jul 2009, 29 deaths resulting from the disease
• 21 Jul 2009, 20 deaths resulting from the disease
• 16 Jul 2009, 1175 cases of swine fever confirmed and eleven deaths resulting from the disease
• 09 Jul 2009, 1027 cases of swine fever confirmed and two deaths resulting from the disease
• 08 Jul 2009, 977 cases of swine fever confirmed and one death resulting from the disease
• 06 Jul 2009, 905 cases of swine fever confirmed and one death resulting from the disease
• 04 Jul 2009, 885 cases of swine fever confirmed and one death resulting from the disease
• 29 Jun 2009, 627 cases of swine fever confirmed and one death resulting from the disease
• 22 May 2009, nine cases of swine fever confirmed
• 09 May 2009, eight cases of swine fever confirmed
• 07 May 2009, first four cases of swine fever confirmed
• 05 May 2009, no confirmations or dismissals of suspect cases yet
• 04 May 2009, no confirmations or dismissals of suspect cases yet
• 03 May 2009, in spite of repeated claims by the government that the country is prepared to face the flu, not a single suspect case has been confirmed or disregarded yet. We don’t know whether this is due to technical incompetence or deliberate concealment of information

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Up until today, there are no travel restrictions whatsoever imposed on travellers arriving from other countries.

Up-to-date information on ANVISA‘s website, the Brazilian’s government body responsible for disease control. It has a version in English but no up-do-date information can be found on that section.

I’m also adding a link to the US’s CDC website with up-to-date information on the topic:

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RELATED POSTS:
10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil
10 facts about yellow fever in Brazil

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Dengue fever is a regular visitor of this blog. If last year it was Rio de Janeiro that suffered a devastating epidemic, this year the bad news come from the state of Bahia. So far this year there have been 26.597 cases, a 291% increase over 2008. 28 deaths have been confirmed and there are another 59 still unconfirmed.

Among the seven cities worst affected by the epidemic there are two tourist destinations: Ilhéus y Porto Seguro.

You have complete information on dengue fever at this blog’s entry 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil.

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I’ve just updated the entry 10 facts about yellow fever in Brazil and made some modifications under the light of recent changes announced by the Brazilian health authorities. I’ve incorporated two major changes:

• Brazil is no longer asking for an International Certificate of Vaccination Against Yellow Fever regardless of where the passenger comes from. This might change in the future but at the moment the certificate is not required.
• the Brazilian authorities have recently changed their advice regarding risk areas. Previously, they divided the country in four different areas (risk areas, potential risk areas, transition areas and risk-free areas). Now the split is much more simple, just the two areas: risk areas and risk-free areas. ONLY those travelling to risk areas should be vaccinated.

You can check out the changes on points 4 and 7 of the above-mentioned blog post.

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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.

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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