Published Date: 2016-03-13 16:14:53
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Yellow fever - China: ex Angola, 1st case in Asia
Archive Number: 20160313.4089857
YELLOW FEVER- CHINA: ex ANGOLA, FIRST CASE IN ASIA
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Sun 13 Mar 2016
Source: Xinhua [edited]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-03/13/c_135183495.htm
China confirms 1st imported yellow fever case
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China's National Health and Family Planning Commission on Sun [13 Mar 2016] confirmed the nation's first imported yellow fever case, in Beijing.
The patient, a 32-year-old man from east Zhejiang Province, 1st experienced stage one symptoms of the disease, including fever and chills, on 8 March 2016 while still in Luanda, capital of Angola in Africa. He sought medical treatment after returning to China on 10 Mar 2016.
[Editor: Huaxia]
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[Angola has been suffering from a yellow fever [YF] epidemic in the capital, Luanda, since December lat year (2015) -- see ProMED Yellow fever - Africa (17): Angola 20160310.4084268 and earlier posts listed below, with over 100 deaths recorded so far.
China has dodged the bullet this time because the mosquito season in Beijing, and in the case`s home province Zhejiang, does not start until July. But other Chinese workers will be returning to southern provinces of China next month (April), when the dengue season opens in that region, and as YF is transmitted by the dengue mosquito, there would be a huge risk of spread from an imported YF case there.
And from there across the southern border to south-east Asia.
China -- and dengue-infected countries all over Asia -- need to take urgent precautions, and the world needs to boost YF vaccine stocks now in order to be prepared. With a death rate of 20 percent of unvaccinated cases, and possibly hundreds of thousands of cases before adequate vaccination coverage can be achieved and take effect, another yellow fever case imported next month and spread could make the Ebola & Zika epidemics look like picnics in the park!
We were lucky because the patient flew into Beijing and they were on the lookout. But what about other Chinese arriving asymptomatic from Angola and falling ill with YF at home in the southern provinces after the dengue season begins? Airport scanners will not detect anyone who has not yet started a fever. Will China ensure all its expat workers in Angola are vaccinated long enough before returning home, and quarantine all unvaccinated returnees?
What is being done about Tom Monath`s suggestion at the ASTMH YF symposium some years ago that bulk vaccine should be prepared and stored, lyophilized at national facilities when needed and delivered cheaply in a still effective 10-fold dilution (still effective) by disposable smallpox needle?
International action should start now. - Mod.JW]
[The arrival of an individual infected with yellow fever virus does not sound the alarm just for China, but for areas in South and Southeast Asia where vector mosquitoes are abundant. Had the infected individual landed in India, Thailand or Indonesia instead of China during the non-vector season, a major public health emergency could have resulted if not detected early, eliciting an aggressive response by public health officials. Mod. TY]
