VACCINATION AND HEALTH QUESTIONS WHEN TRAVELLING TO BRAZIL
MEDICAL ADVICE AND PRECAUTIONS
You needn’t specific medical
advice or special precautions when travelling to Brazil. But, you
should ensure that all appropriate vaccinations are up to date, and
you must take some precautions and malaria and yellow fever
vaccination if you are going to travel to places as the Amazon or
the Pantanal.
Amazon and Pantanal: safety shot?
For your safety, if you intend to visit deep regions in the Amazon
or the Pantanal, it is recommendable to have a yellow fever shot, or
even malaria prophylaxis.
BRAZILIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Unless you are going to some remote and very rural area, you won’t
have to worry about your eventual need of medical or hospital care.
The Brazilian system is efficient enough to provide adequate care to
visitors. The major brazilian cities – Sao Paulo, Rio, Curitiba, Sao
Salvador, Recife, Manaus, Fortaleza… - have sophisticated facilities
and very competent health staff, ready to support foreign visitors.
And the hundred or thousands of other small cities can provide good
health support.
WATER IN BRAZIL
In remote areas you should stick to bottle water: There is
bottled mineral water available virtually everywhere. Tap water
in remote areas can be unsafe even the filtered one. You should
take local advice before drinking tap water.
MALARIA IN BRAZIL
Malaria is circumscribed to some northern parts of Brazil. If
you just intend to visit coastal zones of Brazil, than you needn’t
take anti malarial medication. If you intend to visit the Amazon or
the Pantanal, then you should take anti-malarial vaccination.
YELLOW FEVER
If you just intend to visit coastal zones of Brazil, then you
needn’t anti yellow fever medication. If you intend to visit the
Amazon, the Pantanal or other inland northern destination, then you
should take the adequate vaccine. Yellow Fever occurs in large areas
of north and west Brazil.
Yellow Fever Vaccination
You will not need a Yellow Fever Vaccination Certificate to
enter Brazil – unless you have visited (on the past 90 days) or
intend to visit one of the following countries: Angola, Benin,
Bolivia, Cameroon, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador,
French Guyana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Peru,
Sierra Leone, Sudan and Venezuela.
DENGUE FEVER
Though rare and circumscribed to the poorer urban areas and
sites, dengue fever may occur, namely in the south of Brazil and
Pantanal. There aren’t reported cases of travellers with problems
caused by dengue fever, but sanitary authorities advise visitors to
take advice on local conditions when travelling within Brazil, and
to minimise exposure to mosquito bites by covering up and using
repellents.
OTHER DISEASES
Brazilian is a largely tropical and sub-tropical country, with what
implies some additional precautions some local endemic diseases:
- All travellers should be up-to-date with measles
vaccination.
- There have been some isolated cases of cholera in the North East
of Brazil.
- Rotavirus, Brazilian Spotted Fever (caused by ticks), Chagas
disease (caused by a parasite) are normally located diseases,
relatively common to the rural and poor areas of Brazil.
These and other tropical diseases are unlikely to be encountered in
travel destinations and tourist areas.
For information about travelling in the Amazon, see:
Travelling in the Amazon rainforest
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