Isolation of Yellow Fever Virus from Nulliparous Haemagogus (Haemagogus) janthinomys in Eastern Amazonia

Abstract

In 1998, an epizootic of yellow fever (YF) killed many howler monkeys <Alouatta spp.) in eastern Amazonia near lhe city of Altamira. An infection leveI with YF vírus of -3.6% was determined Eram analysis of 456 females of Haemagogus janthinomys Dyar, lhe main enzootic YF vector in South America. One month later, a second study of 164 females captured in the same place led to infection levels of 0.8% for parous and 2.9% for nulliparous females. These results lead to the conclusion that vertical transmission, one of lhe key elements in lhe epidemiology of YF, occurs in South America as it does in Mrica. Key Words: Yellow fever vírus-Vertical transmissionHaemagogus janthinomys-Amazonia.