Yellow fever is a viral disease, typical of some tropical regions in South America and Africa, causing numerous epidemics with high mortality rates. In order to characterize retrospectively the jungle yellow fever outbreak in Venezuela in the year 2003, by determining the number of cases and deaths confirmed in the affected states according to age, sex, occupation and origin and by identifying factors that triggered the outbreak, as well as the study of cases reported in 2004 and 2005, cases officially registered in the State of Zulia were studied for the period in question. Zulia was the state most affected during the period evaluated, with 25 cases (p <0.001), reporting the highest attack rate during 2003; Merida and Monagas had the highest rates in 2004, Portuguesa in 2005. The most affected age group was 25-44 years, predominantly male farm workers. Results showed the high lethality of yellow fever: 46.51% in 2003, 60% in 2004 and 66.67% in 2005. The implementation of measures to establish a minimum surveillance in areas with proven activity is recommended.
