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
This story is from the January 16, 2017 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 16, 2017 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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
URBAN DISCOMFORT
Poorly planned, heat-trapping infrastructure, along with dwindling natural spaces, turn up the temperatures in major Indian cities
"H5N1 may be more severe than COVID-19"
In early April, the US confirmed the first case of avian influenza in livestock, along with cow-to-human transmission of the virus disease.
THE FOREVER POLLUTANT
From production to usage to disposal, plastic is a threat to those who come in its contact SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH
Seeds from the past
For a decade,200 villages in Odisha have conserved and grown 190 indigenous rice and millet varieties with proven climate resilience
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Soil health is typically measured by its nutrient content, by presence of elements like nitrogen and phosphorus. No country in the world measures it in terms of soil biodiversity-a counting of underground faunal populations and microorganisms.
PRIME TRIGGER
Heat stress dominates debate on the causes of a mysterious chronic kidney disease that continues to baffle health experts and is on the rise globally
India set to see warmer temperatures
A DEADLY tornado struck the Mainaguri area of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, on March 31.