Brazilians are lining up at health centers and medical facilities in the wake of a yellow fever scare. The ailment, an acute viral disease, claimed a third victim from the southern city of Maringa.

According to municipal health officers, 46-year old Almir Rodrigues da Cunha died Wednesday. He may have acquired the ailment after a visit to Caldas Novas, a town in Goias state, where he stayed for the Christmas break.

Five days after he returned to Maringa, da Cunha was hospitalized with few symptoms of yellow fever, which could have been associated with hantavirus, dengue and leptospirosis.

Before da Cunha's death, two yellow fever deaths were reported in Goiania and Brasilia. Eight people across Brazil have been hospitalized with yellow fever symptoms. The country's Health Ministry has declared yellow fever eradicated in Brazil's urban areas in 1942.

But over the past 12 years there were 349 cases and 161 deaths of a wild variety of yellow fever in rural areas, transmitted through mosquito bites. The Health Ministry advised local and foreign visitors going to at-risk areas to be vaccinated. But there is no need for mass vaccination is urban areas because there is no epidemic, said Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao.