An outbreak of yellow fever that has killed hundreds of people in central Africa could spread across the world, an global children’s charity warned on Tuesday, even as a massive vaccination campaign was expected to get underway.
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A wide effort to bring the outbreak under control by vaccinating more than 10 million people in DRC was due to start this week after delays due to shortages of vaccine and syringes. “The mass vaccination campaign in Kinshasa needs to take place now so that we can try and stop Yellow Fever from spreading by land and air to more cities in Africa, and across the world”. There is a vaccine that protects against it, but a current vaccine shortage has some groups anxious that there won’t be enough doses to contain the most recent outbreak.
Experts will also provide technical support to Ministry of Health staff by helping to secure the country’s “cold chain”: shuttling scarce supplies of vaccines to the vaccination sites while keeping them cold using a network of freezers and cool boxes. But supplies are limited, so limited doses are being used.
Save the Children’s country director for DRC, Heather Kerr, says there is an urgent need to reach as many children and families as possible.
A campaign, supported by the charity, to vaccinate the Congolese capital of Kinshasa will begin on Wednesday, in a bid to stop the virus spreading through the city’s population of more than 10 million. However, unlike the Ebola virus that claimed more than 11,000 lives in parts of West Africa in 2014 and 2015, it’s not highly contagious and can be prevented if adequate vaccines are available.
Yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes, with rapid transmission in hot and humid environments. The symptoms can be anything from just a general fever to jaundice (that’s where the “yellow” comes in) and a severe liver disease with bleeding.
World Health Organization in February announced the outbreak of yellow fever in Angola’s capital, Luanda.
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From Angola, the virus spread to Congo, with a total of 5,000 suspected cases. Only 2 million people in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, have been vaccinated so far, World Health Organization said. Overall, some 13 million people in Angola and 3 million in Congo have been vaccinated this year.
