Yellow Fever in Uganda has ended
Yellow Fever – Africa: Uganda
An outbreak of the hemorrhagic yellow fever disease in Uganda that killed 3 people earlier this year [2016] has ended, health authorities in the East African nation said.
Uganda and several international agencies vaccinated 627 706 people over May and June [2016] in 3 districts where the disease was detected, according to an e-mailed statement from the country’s Ministry of Health.
“Following the successful yellow fever vaccination campaign in the affected districts, no new cases of yellow fever have been confirmed,” according to the statement. “Disease surveillance efforts are still ongoing to detect any other possible outbreak.”
Africa’s largest outbreak of yellow fever in 3 decades began in Angola in late 2015 and has claimed about 369 lives in that country, according to the World Health Organization. At least 95 people have died from the virus in the Democratic Republic Congo, the WHO said 5 Aug [2016].
Communicated by: ProMED-mail
The official declaration of the ending of the yellow fever (YF) outbreak in Uganda is good news, indeed. The prompt recognition of cases and timely mounting of the vaccination campaign were keys to successfully ending the outbreak before it got out-of-hand. However, continued surveillance is essential. This outbreak was due to spill-over of endemic sylvan (forest) transmission from monkeys via mosquitoes to people. The virus is doubtless still circulating in the forests of Uganda, so the risk of new spill-over cases is real.
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