A massive vaccination campaign is about to start in the Democratic Republic of Congo as an worldwide children’s charity warned, on Tuesday, that an outbreak of yellow fever that has killed hundreds of people in central Africa could spread across the globe.
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More than 14 million people in Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo are to be vaccinated against yellow fever to prevent the national and worldwide spread of the disease.
The WHO says an emergency committee will reconvene in the coming weeks to evaluate the situation and determine whether the yellow fever epidemic has been contained or constitutes a public health emergency of worldwide concern.
Attempts 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. While African continent reported 47 cases and 6 mortalities in year 2008 and 20 cases and 3 mortalities in year 2009, the Americas reported 102 cases and 42 mortalities in year 2008 and 55 cases and 18 mortalities in year 2009 as per reports of World Health Organisation.
A small but significant fraction of cases die from jaundice, bleeding and multiple organ failure. In the two countries, almost 500 people are reported to have died. This outreach aims to end transmission of the disease by September, before the rainy season begins. Other challenges include a lack of reliable power to keep vaccines cold.
A vaccination campaign against yellow fever is now underway in Africa.
“We have to urgently reach as many children and families as we can with the supplies that are left, and this is the only way we are able to do that right now”. While the fractional dose prohibits global travel, it protects people from yellow fever during the outbreak and contains the disease from spreading further. “There is a lot of enthusiasm”, said Eugene Kabambi, a World Health Organization spokesman in Congo. The campaign was launched by the United Nations (UN) health agency in a bid to protect a reported 14 million people from the disease. The WHO approved 11.5 million doses for Congo and 21 million doses for Angola. The WHO says the current deadly outbreak is particularly worrisome because, for the first time, it is occurring in densely populated urban areas where immunity is very low and the risk of it spreading is high.
There is no known cure for the mosquito-spread virus, which is easily prevented with vaccines. The WHO said fractional dosing will likely confer at least 1-year immunity to recipients, as opposed to lifelong immunity provided by the standard vaccine.
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The WHO said: “Yellow fever vaccine is safe and affordable and a single dose provides life-long protection against yellow fever disease”. Once infected, people often fall ill with fever and muscle pain, but many recover after several days.
