Concord Times (Freetown)
Ben Samuel Turay
9 January 2009
Freetown — The ministry of health and sanitation will vaccinate more than 500,000 people for yellow fever in Bo district in an effort to stop the outbreak there from spreading to other parts of the country.
Dr. Amara Jambai, the disease prevention control officer in Bo, yesterday said the ministry hopes the vaccinations will help stop more people from getting the disease.
The vaccinations will be done from January 10 to January 14 and they will be given for free at market points. Everyone, except children younger than nine months and pregnant women, will be given the vaccine. The ministry is trying to vaccinate 527,978 people in total.
The yellow fever outbreak was first reported in Gerihun and Jembe on December 16, 2008. Two cases of the disease were confirmed by tests in Dakar. Since November, 55 suspected cases of yellow fever have been investigated in the district, and at least two people have died.
The health ministry, the world health organization (WHO), Medecins san Frontiers (MSF), and other international health organizations are working together to prevent the sickness from spreading. The vaccines came from the Global Emergency Stockpile for Yellow Fever Vaccine, and arrived in the country on January 1.
"We have strategies to make sure that we try our best," said Dr. Soccoh Kabia, the minister of health and sanitation. "We will make sure that the sickness will not bring panic to people," he said, adding that there are many surveillance officers in the country watching for people who are sick.
Ade Theophilus Renner, a representative of WHO, said yellow fever was once one of the most feared epidemic diseases in the world.
"Mass vaccination campaigns in the mid 20th century succeeded in bringing the disease under control for over 40 years but since the late 1980s, this deadly disease has returned, putting at risk a new generation in West and Central Africa and threatening to erupt into devastating urban epidemics," he said.
The last known yellow fever outbreaks in Sierra Leone were in Kenema district in 1995 and Tonkolili district in 2003. Ten deaths were reported in 2003.
Yellow fever is in 33 countries in Africa and in 11 South American countries. Many countries in West Africa are affected, including Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Dr. Kabia explained that yellow fever is a viral disease caused by the yellow fever virus. It is transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes. The mosquitoes usually bite during the day, especially at dawn and dusk.
The disease can cause fever, muscle pain with a bad backache, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, shivers, jaundice, abdominal pain with vomiting, and blood in the vomit and faeces. Bleeding can occur from the mouth, nose, eyes and stomach.
Most people get better after three or four days. There is no cure for yellow fever, but the vaccination can stop people from getting sick. In 2002, the government started giving children the vaccine as part of routine shots, but most people older than six years have not been vaccinated.
To keep from getting yellow fever, the ministry of health recommends getting the vaccination. Avoiding mosquito bites by sleeping under treated bed nets, wearing protective clothing, and using insect repellant on exposed skin can also help.
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