6 people have died from suspected Yellow Fever disease in the Upper West Region. To this end, the Upper West Regional Health Directorate has thus initiated preventative and treatment measures in the affected areas; Wa East District and Sissala West Municipality, in the Upper West Region.
The Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Damien Punguyire said the Directorate is assisting its Departments in the affected areas to educate the public against the disease. So far, some 2,545 people aged between 6 months and 60 years have been vaccinated against the disease. This represents about 38 percent of the target population of 6,909.
Dr. Punguyire encouraged members of the public who had not yet received a shot of the Yellow Fever Vaccine to visit a health facility for assistance.
Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The “yellow” in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients. Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. A small proportion of patients who contract the virus develop severe symptoms and approximately half of those die within 7 to 10 days.
The virus is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and Central and South America. Large epidemics of yellow fever occur when infected people introduce the virus into heavily populated areas with high mosquito density and where most people have little or no immunity, due to lack of vaccination. In these conditions, infected mosquitoes of the Aedes aegypti species transmit the virus from person to person. Yellow fever is prevented by an extremely effective vaccine, which is safe and affordable. A single dose of yellow fever vaccine is sufficient to grant sustained immunity and life-long protection against yellow fever disease. A booster dose of the vaccine is not needed. The vaccine provides effective immunity within 10 days for 80-100% of people vaccinated, and within 30 days for more than 99% of people vaccinated.
A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz| Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith | Ghana
