The yellow fever epidemic in Angola, which has led to 369 deaths since December, is decreasing; six weeks ago the confirmation of new cases stopped.


 

The latest report of the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that there were more than 70 suspected cases of the disease in the last week of July, half of those recorded in the previous period.

Until July 28th, 3,818 suspected cases of the disease were recorded, out of which 879 were confirmed;119 deaths were recorded, according to the source.

An additional vaccination campaign of more than 17 million people is expected before the start of the rainy season.

At least 42 countries are endemic for yellow fever and face epidemics regularly.

The transmission of the disease in 2016 was labeled as explosive, depleting the stock of vaccines.

Such an increase is probably due to the severity of the weather phenomenon El Niño, which led to a higher density of mosquito Aedes aegypti which transmits the disease. More than 16 million people of Angola and the DRC have been vaccinated against yellow fever since February.

To manage the availability of vaccines, the WHO reports that it will be given one-fifth of the normal dose of the vaccine to the 8.5 million people in Kinshasa (DRC's capital) still waiting for it.

Research shows that this emergency dose will be enough to provide effective immunity against infection for at least 12 months, the organization states.

Yellow fever is a viral disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and causes fever, muscle aches, loss of appetite, vomiting and nausea and can lead to death.

source:plenglish.com