The 12 host cities for the World Cup in Brazil have been alerted of the possible risk of an outbreak of dengue fever during the upcoming soccer events in Brazil, according to Reuters.
The risk for the outbreak is serious enough to warrant a high alert in three of the 12 host cities, according to an early warning system for the disease, Reuters reported.
Scientists who developed the system said the overall threat of the disease during the month-long competition was low, but they warned that the northeastern venues of Natal, Fortaleza and Recifethere faced a serious risk, according to the AP.
Dengue, sometimes called breakbone fever because of the severe pain it can cause, is a viral infection transmitted by a type of mosquito called Aedes aegypti, the AP reported.
The symptoms can range from a mild, flu-like illness to a potentially deadly one, which develops in around 5 percent of patients and there are no vaccines or effective treatments, according to the AP.
Brazil has more cases of dengue fever than anywhere else in the world. with more than 7 million infections were recorded between 2000 and 2013, the AP reported. The cities with the highest risk are Natal, Fortaleza, and Recife.
Rachel Lowe, from the Catalan Institute of Climate Sciences in Barcelona, who helped develop the warning system, said the possibility of an outbreak during the World Cup large enough to infect visitors and spread back to their home countries will depend on a combination of factors, according to the AP.
"Our aim was to take the available evidence on real-time seasonal rainfall and temperature forecasts, transmission dynamics, and social and environmental variables and combine it with the latest in mapping and mathematical modeling to produce robust risk estimates for the 12 host cities," Lowe said, the AP reported.
"The ability to provide early warnings of dengue epidemics at the microregion level, three months in advance, is invaluable for reducing or containing an epidemic and will give local authorities the time to combat mosquito populations in those cities with a greater chance of dengue outbreaks," Lowe said, according to the AP.
