Shortage of vaccines has pushed many African countries to the brink of a yellow fever epidemic
SOME DISEASES miss global attention because of competing diseases and shrinking media space. Yellow fever is one of them. The disease, which is transmitted from infected monkeys by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, was overlooked because of the unilateral global focus on Zika virus, which is also caused by the same mosquito. By December 2016, Africa was on the brink of a severe epidemic, primarily because most countries ran out of the vaccine. What is worrying is that the disease, which was restricted to the African continent, has now spread to Asia—China, for the first time, reported 11 cases last year.
The disease has a long dark global history. It was a scourge in the 18th and 19th centuries in Africa and the Americas. Imported to the Americas through the slave trade from Africa, it killed thousands of people; one-tenth of the population of Philadelphia was wiped out in 1793. Today, the disease causes 200,000 infections and 30,000 deaths every year, with nearly 90 per cent of these occurring in Africa.
Victims of yellow fever suffer bouts of fever, headache, muscle pain and jaundice. In many cases, patients do not experience the initial symptoms, and enter the more toxic second phase when the liver and kidney are affected, resulting in jaundice. The infection results in the yellowing of the skin and eyes, which is why this disease has earned its name. About 50 per cent of patients who enter this toxic phase die within 10–14 days, according to the World Health Organization.
Dearth of vaccines
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 16, 2017 من Down To Earth.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 16, 2017 من Down To Earth.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
THE ALCHEMY OF EMOTIONS - SL'OTH
As with all personality traits, laziness is a combination of genes and environment
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - WRATH
Anger is an emotional programme, a part of natural selection that helps us bargain for better treatment
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - GLUTTONY
We have been captured by food and it is driving us to do something that is arguably not good for us
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - ENVY
Envy gives people a fundamental desire for a higher social rank
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS-L'UST
Love, lust, attachments are basic brain circuits. They are too primitive a system and will never change
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS - GREED
Evolutionary biology sees greed as a way to increase your chances of survival
THE AL'CHEMY OF EMOTIONS
I felt for the tormented whirlwinds Damned for their carnal sins Committed when they let their passions rule their reason
INVISIBLE THREAT
Significant presence of microplastics in Puducherry’s agricultural soil raises concerns for soil and crop health
Feeding off each other
VEGETARIAN MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH ASIA AND THE WEST GREW WITH MUTUAL SUPPORT AND VALIDATION
India's unhealthy patent amendments
Despite strong pleas, the Modi regime has changed the rules to impose a cost on those who challenge faulty patents