Mass yellow fever vaccination kicks off in DRC

A mass vaccination campaign against yellow fever has kicked off in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following an outbreak of the disease in the country.

The immunization aims to cover about 2 million people in the zones lying at the border with neighbouring Angola. It will however exclude pregnant women and children below nine months.

The campaign, financed by Gavi-Alliance comes after 48 cases were confirmed in the country including 44 cases imported from Angola.

Seven people in the Congo Central region have lost their lives as reported by different hospitals in the province.

Our Emergency Health Unit has been deployed to Boma #DRC to support a ten-day yellow fever vaccination campaign targeting 210,00 people

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According to the World Health Organisation, more than 300 people have died in Angola in just four months, following the outbreak of the disease detected at the end of last year.

The disease has already spread to Kenya and China and there is an unrelated outbreak in Uganda, generating fears of the mosquito-borne disease jumping to sprawling cities in Asia and Africa.

There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, a viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes and found in tropical regions of Africa and Latin America’s Amazon region.