Three dead in latest Uganda yellow fever outbreak

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Johannesburg - The ministry of health in Uganda on Friday confirmed another outbreak of yellow fever following the death of three people in the Moyo and Buliisa districts, Hoima region. The country also experienced outbreaks in 2016, 2018 and 2019, rendering the disease endemic. In the latest outbreak, two men aged between 18 and 21 tested positive for the disease in Moyo district, according to the department, while in Buliisa, a 37-year-old-man and his 38-year-old wife were also infected. The wife survived and is reportedly healing well. "The husband was a cattle farmer trading in milk between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," said Ugandan health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng at a press briefing. She said her department, together with the WHO, had dispatched rapid response teams to the affected districts to support investigations and search for infections.

Yellow fever is transmitted through the bites of mosquitoes infected by the flavivirus. Symptoms include high fever, headache, general body aches, fatigue, vomiting, blood in the urine or stool and/or yellow discolouration of the skin and/or eyes.

Aceng said she had made a request for vaccines from the international coordination group that managed global stockpiles of yellow fever and meningitis supplies. The country now qualified to use the yellow fever vaccine as a long-term measure to prevent outbreaks, she added.

"We anticipate that within the next two weeks, vaccines will be available and vaccinations will commence in Moyo and Buliisa districts."

The ministry had also applied to vaccine alliance group Gavi and the WHO for inclusion of the yellow fever vaccination into the country's routine immunisation schedule, she said.

Travellers entering and exiting the country must be immunised to stop the spread of the disease.

African News Agency