Several deaths caused by yellow fever have prompted millions of Brazilians to line up at hospitals and clinics to receive vaccines against the epidemic disease.

Yellow fever was eradicated in Brazilian urban centers in the 1940s but recent deaths from the viral disease as well as additional suspect cases have raised fears that the dreaded disease has returned.

One man died in the nation’s capital Brasilia last week, according to Reuters, and authorities confirmed Monday that a second person, this time from a rural area of the central state of Goias, also died of the disease.

More than 20 other suspect cases are being investigated, the same source informs. The case of a Spanish citizen who died in Goias during the weekend has been confirmed as death from yellow fever as well, reports the Associated Press.

The Brazilian government confirmed Tuesday five deaths from yellow fever insisting however that the outbreak is under control. The Brazilian Health Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that a sixth person contracted the disease but was recovering while undergoing treatment, according to the AP.

Tourists traveling to Brazilian forests, national parks and rural areas (all places where mosquitoes which spread the yellow fever, are especially found) are strongly advised to vaccinate at least 10 days before the trip.

Cautionary measures have already been taken, with the Health Ministry delivering more than 3.2 million doses of yellow fever vaccines so far this year, compared with 11.5 million doses in all of 2007.

Reuters specifies that more than half of Brazil's 27 states are partially or entirely considered yellow fever risk areas, including the Amazon and Brasilia. Most of the coast, the country’s primary tourist attraction, is considered free of the disease.

The same source cites Health Minister Jose Temporao explaining Sunday that all suspected cases involved people without vaccination who traveled to forest areas. “There is no risk of an epidemic,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization’s fact sheet on yellow fever, the symptoms include fever, muscle pain (with prominent backache), headache, shivers, loss of appetite, nausea and/or vomiting.

These symptoms disappear within 3-4 days as patients improve but 15 percent enter a second stage of the disease within 24 hours, characterized by jaundice (which gives the disease its name), abdominal pain and vomiting. Half of the patients who enter the “toxic phase” die within 10-14 days. The remainder recover without significant organ damage.