Cote d'Ivoire: Yellow fever outbreak (plus undiagnosed fatalities also suspected to be yellow fever)

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http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87068

COTE D'IVOIRE: Yellow fever strikes in north

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN
Children in Odienn?, northwest C?te d'Ivoire (file photo)
DAKAR, 16 November 2009 (IRIN) - Health officials have confirmed three cases of yellow fever in C?te d?Ivoire?s northwest Dengu?l? region.

"We have 10 suspected cases, with three confirmed," Sim?on N?da, Health Ministry head of communications, told IRIN on 16 November. Health workers vaccinated people in and around affected villages at the weekend, according to N'da. He did not specify how many people were vaccinated and in what localities.

N'da said there had been no deaths from the mosquito-borne viral infection. Local taxi drivers told IRIN they transported the bodies of four teenagers from hospital in the region?s main city Odienn? to their home village of Tron Touba for burial during the week of 9 November. Their families said they had died of an unknown illness.

Local health officials in Odienn? would not comment.

Some 30,000 people worldwide die of yellow fever each year, of about 200,000 cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). No cure exists and 50 percent of infected people who cannot access treatment will die, according to WHO, which says vaccination is ?the single most important preventive measure?.

 

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Re: Cote d'Ivoire: Yellow fever outbreak (plus undiagnosed fatalities also suspected to be yellow fever)

Source: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87603

In Brief: Bid to halt yellow fever in C?te d?Ivoire

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN
Women selling water in Odienn?, northern C?te d'Ivoire (file photo)
ABIDJAN, 30 December 2009 (IRIN) - C?te d?Ivoire?s Health Ministry and the World Health Organization are vaccinating tens of thousands of people against yellow fever in the north after an outbreak starting in November killed 21 people.

Health workers are targeting 303,518 people in the Dengu?l? region ? in the main city, Odienn?, and in the towns of Minignan and Madinani, according to a WHO and Health Ministry communiqu?.

In an initial response to the November outbreak health workers vaccinated 33,000 people in the areas immediately surrounding the known cases, in Odienn? and Minignan. But the mosquito-borne viral infection eventually reached other towns, according to WHO.

In the current campaign, 26 to 31 December, all those over six months old who have never been vaccinated or whose last yellow fever vaccination was over 10 years ago (the effectiveness period) will receive the vaccine, except for pregnant women and the severely ill.

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