Yellow fever: vaccination campaign launched in the regions of East, West

The vaccination campaign against yellow fever launched since May 12 in the two regions will end on May 17. The vaccination is for children aged 9 months and above.

Cameroon has launched the vaccination campaign in two regions out of the ten in the country. For a period of six days, people are invited to visit health facilities and some temporary positions chosen as centers for the exercise. The administered dose of vaccine is free.

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The term "yellow" refers to jaundice that is manifested by the diagnosed patients.

When one contracts the virus, the incubation period in the body is 3 to 6 days after which the disease which may have one or two phases manifests. The first, acute, usually causes fever, muscle aches coupled with backache, headache, shivers, loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting. The conditions of most patients then improve and their symptoms disappear after 3 to 4 days.

However, 15% of patients have a more toxic second stage within 24 hours of the initial relief. High fever resurfaces and several body systems are affected.

The patient quickly gets jaundice and complains of abdominal pain while vomiting. Bleeding may occur in the mouth, nose, eyes or stomach. When it gets to this stage, one sees blood in vomit and faeces and kidney function deteriorates.

Half of patients with the toxic phase die within 10 to 14 days, and the others recover without significant organ damage.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 50% of severely affected people of yellow fever that are not treated will die. Each year an estimated 200, 000 cases of yellow fever and 30,000 deaths from the disease worldwide, 90% occurring in Africa.

The yellow fever virus is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and Latin America, with a population of over 900 million.

It should be noted that, there is no specific treatment for yellow fever. Treatment is symptomatic and aims to reduce symptoms for patient comfort.

Vaccination is thus the main preventive measure against yellow fever. The vaccine is safe, free and very effective and the administered single dose is sufficient to give a lasting immunity and a lifelong protection against the disease. It gives in 30 days effective immune protection to 99% of recipients.