On May 22, the health secretariat of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul confirmed that a 2nd person has died from leptospirosis, a waterborne virus.
According to the Associated Press, regional health experts had “forecast a surge in infectious diseases including leptospirosis and hepatitis B.
Carlos Machado, a regional public health and environmental expert reported that the “outbreak of leptospirosis cases was somewhat expected due to the number of people exposed to the water, as well as other diseases”. Machado also said that Brazil has never seen a “disaster of this size and with such a large exposed population”.
This comes as Rio Grande do Sul has been recovering from unprecedented floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The flooding killed dozens and many are still missing.
This is developing.
