Yellow Fever Kills Nearly 300 In Africa: Disease In Danger Of Becoming A Global Epidemic Due To Vaccine Shortage

The yellow fever outbreak in Angola is raising concerns as vaccines for the mosquito-borne viral disease is undergoing shortage. The World Health Organization said the emergency stockpile of the yellow fever vaccine is dwindling in numbers.

A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association said yellow fever has huge chances of spreading to other continents and becoming a global health emergency. Around six million people have been given the vaccine for the virus in Angola, an African country which has a 24.3 million population.

Yellow Fever Symptoms

Yellow fever comes from the Flavivirus, which is transmitted by Aedes and Haemogogus mosquitoes, according to the World Health Organization's website. The yellow fever virus incubates in the human body for three to six days. Fever, muscle pain, headache, loss of appetite, shivers, persistent backache and nausea or vomiting are the disease's symptoms in its first phase.

The second phase of the disease is more dangerous. Patients develop jaundice, abdominal pain with vomiting, poor kidney function, blood in the vomit and feces and bleeding on the eyes, mouth, nose or stomach.

Yellow Fever Spreads In Other Nations

Since December, WHO authorities in Angola have recorded 277 deaths due to yellow fever, BBC reported. The virus has reached to Angola's neighboring countries: China, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Democratic Republic of Congo recorded 41 confirmed cases of yellow fever, which are all contracted from infected people in Angola, Reuters reported. Angola's foreign oil workers are the most likely to infect people in their countries with the disease.

Uganda also has seven confirmed cases of yellow fever in the country's rural places. China and Portugal are both taking measures to avoid the virus' spread, Reuters reported from Sylvie Briand, director of the Pandemics and Epidemics Department at WHO. China and Portugal have close business relations with Angola.

The Reason Behind Vaccine Shortage

The production process of yellow fever vaccines takes about six months, BBC wrote. Drug companies only manufacture vaccines that are adequate for the world's routine immunization. This is why it takes time before a new batch of vaccines is rolled out.

Daniel Lucey and Lawrence Gostinsay, two professors from Georgetown University, urged the WHO to immediately devise an emergency committee that will mobilize funds and organize a global response to produce yellow fever vaccines. However, it should be noted that vaccines only protects people from being infected with the Flavivirus, but there is no exact medicine for individuals who already have yellow fever.