An outbreak of yellow fever in Angola in which hundreds have already died could be "a threat to the entire world", the World Health Organisation has warned.
Cases of the mosquito-borne virus were first reported in Angola's capital Luanda in December. The disease has now spread to 16 of the country's 18 provinces.
So far, thousands of people are suspected to have been infected with the disease and 238 people have died, WHO has reported.
"The evolution of the situation in Angola is concerning and needs to be closely monitored," it stated in a report.
People traveling from Angola have already exported the virus to China, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where at least 21 people are reported to have died.
The trend has sparked concerns among the WHO, which fears the virus is at risk of spreading further because of the large international communities living in Angola that regularly travels to neighboring countries.
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5 comments:
I don't want to minimize the danger of yellow fever but it seems like everytime you turn around there is another sickness, virus etc that is going to wipe us off the face of the earth therefore the world health organization requires another couple of billion dollars. The sky is falling
We drop $100 million in Angola every year, much of it through the CDC for health care and disease prevention. Malaria and HIV/AIDS have been the special targets. Mosquito control is the most effective way to prevent both malaria and yellow fever.
If malaria rates are going down (there is no malaria vaccination, so it would be the mosquito control that does it) and yellow fever is going up (and there is a vaccination in addition to mosquito control), what gives?
You can thank Earth Day icon Rachael Carson and her "silent spring"
Thank Carson for what, predicting this? Because she did.
It is recognized as a threat by those who created it.
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