Brazilian ports and airports must display informational materials on mpox symptoms and prevention measures. The posters must be placed in international arrival areas while the Public Health Emergency of International Concern for the disease lasts.
Similarly, airlines must issue a sound announcement about measles on board aircraft while the disease elimination process in Brazil lasts.
On international flights, the message with guidance on the disease must also be announced in Spanish and English. The disease has been declared a Public Health Event in Brazil.
The measures were determined by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and are part of the agency’s new normative instruction, which addresses temporary health actions to be adopted in ports, airports, and by transport operators in light of the epidemiological scenario in the country.
The document was approved by Anvisa’s collegial board last Monday (July 28).
The informational materials and health measures will be adopted for diseases declared as Public Health Emergency of International Importance (ESPII), National Public Health Emergency of Importance (ESPIN), and Public Health Event (ESP).
For mpox and measles, only the disclosure of informational materials is required, with no specific health measures recommended for travelers or transport means.
In addition to the two diseases, poliomyelitis is also on the Public Health Emergency of International Importance list, but no health measures or informational materials need to be adopted.
The normative instruction is updated periodically based on epidemiological alerts for national and international public health events. The epidemiological scenario is updated regularly based on guidelines from the Ministry of Health’s Public Health Events Monitoring Committee (CME), active Health Emergency Operation Centers (COEs), as well as technical guidance and regulations issued by the Ministry of Health.
According to Anvisa, the approval of the regulation is a legacy of the covid-19 pandemic, when various resolutions required tests, face masks, and other measures to reduce disease transmission in ports and airports.
“Now the Agency implements an agile tool that allows these measures to be updated as soon as the Ministry of Health indicates their application and their technical relevance for the sector is verified.”
Diseases
Mpox is caused by the Monkeypox virus and can spread between people and, occasionally, from the environment to people through objects and surfaces touched by an infected patient.
Its most common symptom is a skin rash similar to blisters or sores, which can last two to four weeks. The current mpox alert relates to the new strain 1b of the virus circulating in Africa, which was identified in Brazil in March.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease caused by the paramyxovirus, transmitted directly through the air via secretions expelled when coughing, sneezing, talking, or breathing, and it can remain in environments for two hours.
Infection can lead to serious complications such as otitis media, pneumonia, infertility in males, and encephalitis. The current alert was issued following new cases and outbreaks of measles from international circulation and isolated cases in Brazil identified even after the country’s certification of disease elimination.
Poliomyelitis is also caused by a virus that can infect children and adults through direct contact with feces or mouth secretions from sick individuals and, in severe cases, can invade the central nervous system and cause paralysis in the lower limbs.
The World Health Organization assesses that there is still a risk of international spread of the poliovirus.
Vaccines against poliomyelitis and measles are available in the public health network.
For mpox, in 2023 during the first global emergency, Anvisa authorized the emergency use of the Jynneos vaccine for a specific audience.
The development of a national vaccine is a priority for Rede Vírus, a committee of virology experts created to develop diagnostics, treatments, vaccines, and content on emerging viruses in Brazil.
Source: Agência Brasil