Yellow Fever In The Central African Republic - World Health Organization

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 03 Nov 2008 - 2:00 PST

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On 22 August the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Central African Republic reported a laboratory confirmed case of yellow fever. This is the second Yellow fever event reported by the Central African Republic in 2008. The case has been laboratory confirmed for Yellow fever by the Institut Pasteur, Dakar.

The initial case is a 32-year old male from Ngotto village, sub-prefecture of Boda, Prefecture of La Lobaye, who presented with symptoms of fever and jaundice. He is alive and continues to recover from his illness. The case was detected by the national Yellow fever surveillance system.

The outbreak investigation team evaluated 34 contacts in Boda sub-prefecture. Four presented with symptoms of fever or jaundice and the other 30 were asymptomatic.

On the basis of the assessment of the outbreak situation, it was decided to vaccinate 183,992 people against Yellow fever in the four sub-prefectures of the Prefecture of La Lobaye (Mbaiki, Mongoumba, Boda and Bogonda) and part of the neighbouring Prefecture of La Sangha (sub-prefecture of Bambio).

The Prefecture of La Lobaye is not an endemic area for Yellow fever. In March 2008, the Central African Republic reported some Yellow fever cases in the North West of the country and a mass vaccination campaign against Yellow fever was conducted successfully in the region.

In response to the outbreak, the MoH has made a request for yellow fever vaccines and operational costs for the preventative mass vaccination campaign from the GAVI funded Global Emergency Stockpile for Yellow fever vaccine, managed by the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision for Yellow Fever Control (YF-ICG).

World Health Organization