DR Congo: Final 'onslaught' against yellow fever

A massive vaccination campaign against yellow fever has been extended to the entire Kinshasa as well as four provinces affected by the epidemic in Angola.

Congolese lined up in their numbers on Thursday waiting to be administered the vaccine.

The campaign had been launched on July 20 by Congolese and UN officials at Kisenso where four people had died and 80 other suspected cases noticed following a cholera outbreak.

“My work has been to sensitise people about the importance of being vaccinated. Prevention is better than cure,“Poline Kandja, health worker doing the sensitisation campaign said.

WHO officials say the campaign which targets 10.5 million people is one of the most effective preventive vaccination campaigns against yellow fever ever organised in the Africa region.

“We got the news and came. We are scared. We don’t want the colour of our bodies to become yellow as in a gallon,” one of those vaccinated told reporters.

As of August 10, 2016, there were 16 yellow fever reported deaths in Kinshasa with 76 confirmed cases and 2.269 suspected cases.