Venezuela reports 1st local transmission of yellow fever in 14 years

By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported this week on a autochthonous case of yellow fever in Venezuela.

According to the case report:

The case-patient is a 46-year-old male resident of the municipality of Gran Sabana, Bolivar State. He was in the locality of Uriman municipality of Gran Sabana within the 19 days prior to the onset of symptoms. Symptom onset was on 14 September 2019, and included fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, epistaxis, petechiae, and diarrhea. On 26 September 2019, he visited a public hospital in the municipality of Heres where his condition deteriorated, with moderate dehydration, bleeding from the gums, jaundice, choluria, abdominal pain, and hepatomegaly. As of 13 November 2019, the patient remains hospitalized with chronic renal failure and moderate anemia.

The case was confirmed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

The last time Venezuela saw a case of local transmission of yellow fever was 2005.

A donation of 571,000 doses of yellow fever vaccine from UNICEF arrived in the country at the end of October and a joint investigation team was deployed earlier this month.

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Yellow fever is a viral disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes belonging to the Aedes species. Yellow fever can lead to serious illness and even death. Yellow fever vaccine is the best protection against yellow fever disease, which can be fatal.



