Story highlights The Yellow fever outbreak in Brazil could spread, but a US outbreak is unlikely

Health experts warn of the possibility of imported travel cases

(CNN) An outbreak of yellow fever in rural Brazil is raising concerns that the disease could spread across borders to the US, like Zika, say two health experts writing in an essay published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

While the likelihood of yellow fever outbreaks in the US is low, "travel-related cases of yellow fever could occur, with brief periods of local transmission in warmer regions such as the Gulf Coast states," wrote Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and colleague Dr. Catharine Paules.

"In an era of frequent international travel, any marked increase in domestic cases in Brazil raises the possibility of travel-related cases," they wrote.

Experts fear spread of the disease may resemble that of the Zika virus, which emerged in Brazil in 2015 and later spread to more than 60 countries including the US, causing local outbreaks in Florida.

The current yellow fever outbreak began in December, in rural areas of Brazil, and numbers reportedly exceed normal rates for this time of year.

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