Rain may bring disease-carrying mosquitoes. But the lack of it could have been a factor that led to the first urban yellow fever outbreak in Brazil in decades.<\/p>\n
In 2015, an El Ni\u00f1o powered an abnormally strong drought in central South America, and monkeys and mosquitoes on the\u00a0hunt for water\u00a0may have\u00a0brought the virus into Brazilian cities, researchers report August 14 in\u00a0Science Advances<\/em>. Computer simulations hint that infected nonhuman primates moving into urban areas from dry forests and bite-happy mosquitoes perhaps trying to avoid dehydration may have helped drive yellow fever\u2019s spread. During the outbreak, which began in late 2016, more than 2,000 people fell ill and nearly 750 people died.\u00a0<\/p>\n