Yellow Fever Epidemic Hits Highest Number Yet

Posted: Jun 17th, 2016 at 12:00AM - by e7 Health

As we have previously wrote about, the Yellow Fever outbreak in Eastern Africa is still an ongoing issue. In Angola alone, the disease has killed 350 people, and effected 2,954 people, and the disease is spreading as far as China. All of this is happening on top of the fact that there is a world wide shortage of the Yellow Fever vaccine. The way that Yellow Fever is transmitted is through mosquitoes, the same way that the Zika virus and Dengue Fever is transmitted. Yellow Fever is much more serious though and has a death rate as high as 75%, and often requires hospitalization.

The Yellow Fever outbreak in Angola has been able to be traced back to the city of Luanda, which is the capital and the largest city in Angola. Angolan officials and officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) started to track where the virus may have started from, and in doing so, traced everything back to a restaraunt in the market district of Luanda. The common link between people infected with the disease were that they all went through that restaraunt. Even the restaraunt's owner died from Yellow Fever.

Since the outbreak was identified as being Yellow Fever, 10.5 million Angolans (40% of the population) have been vaccinated, and the World Health Organization plans to vaccinate the rest of the country before the end of the year. Another problem area in Africa is in the neighboring country of Democratic Republica of Congo, which currently has 50 cases of Yellow Fever. The city of Kinshasa, which has a population of over 12 million, is currently concerned about the Yellow Fever crisis and the shortage of vaccines, and with no way to boost production of the vaccine quickly, many people are wondering the same thing. If the disease spreads over to Kinshasa, health officials may have to start dipping into the global stockpile of vaccines and administering one fifth doses of the vaccine in order to at least get a little bit of the vaccine in each persons system. Neighboring countries in Africa are all worried and concerned. One of the bigger concerns is that in order to even get into Angola, you must show proof of immunization. So people are getting infected even though the country has taken extra steps to not allow unvaccinated people over their borders.

Even though hundreds have died and thousands have been infected, the World Health Organization doesn't feel that it constitutes as a public health emergencey...yet. Oyewale Tomori, Chairman of the WHO Yellow Fever Emergency Committee that met in Geneva and discussed this, says that "It does require intensified control measures but it is not a public health emergency of international concern." Even though this was not declared a public health emergencey, is has been declared as the worst Yellow Fever outbreak in Southern Africa in three decades.

In an artcile written by CNN, anyone traveling to these areas or a Yellow Fever prone area, should be vaccinated before arriving. At e7 Health, we specialize in travel medicine and are able to provide you pre-travel counseling on where you are traveling to and what the risks are, as well as vaccines for the area that you are traveling to. One of our travel doctors of travel nurse practitioners will go over your specific itinerary of your trip, and based on the CDC guidelines, will go over which vaccines are prescriptions are recommended. Call us today OR book your travel consultation online! Click here to read more about our travel medicine services and what types of vaccines and prescriptions we offer.