WHO set to battle yellow fever in West Africa
As part of the World Health Organisation’s drive to greatly reduce the number of people getting sick with yellow fever, local health authorities are set to immunise some 12 million people in Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone. WHO says it can’t eliminate the disease as there are too many infected mosquitoes in urban areas to make that possible, but it wants to finish mass vaccinations in all high-risk African countries by 2015. A current funding gap needs to be overcome to take the programme to 13 other nations said to be at high risk of yellow fever outbreaks. Spread through infected mosquitoes, the disease can kill, with symptoms ranging from nausea and vomiting, to kidney failure, jaundice and bleeding. About half of those with untreated severe symptoms die from the disease. Read more: BBC, WHO
