Yellow fever cases rise in South America

The Pan American Health Organization issued an epidemic warning as the worst yellow fever outbreak in decades spread across South America.

Though the number of cases remains relatively low — 320 have been reported — infections are exceptionally deadly, with around 40% of confirmed cases succumbing to the disease.

“We’re facing a complicated situation,” a health expert in Colombia, the worst-affected nation, told El País. And with urban areas increasingly encroaching into jungles, other mosquito-borne diseases will spread easily too, experts said, amid warnings the region’s health systems are woefully unprepared for mass outbreaks: Latin America accounted for 15% of global excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic despite having only 8% of the world’s population.