Rumors, mistrust hinder Brazil yellow fever vaccine campaign

SAO PAULO (AP) — Elisangela Santos doesn't understand why everyone in her neighborhood on the outskirts of Sao Paulo is being told to get vaccinated for yellow fever this year. Yellow fever has long been endemic in parts of Brazil, and she smells a rat.

"Every year, it's something else," the 44-year-old school custodian said as she waiting recently outside a health post in the Jardim Miriam district. "They invent another thing to make Brazilians spend money."

The vaccine is free at public health posts around the country, but Santos' suspicion that someone must be profiting somewhere is typical of the current high levels of mistrust Brazilians hold for officialdom.