Yellow Fever-Isolated Case Confirmed Netherlands

OUTBREAK REPORT-Yellow Fever – Kingdom of the Netherlands

From the World Health Organization,

  • World Health Organization (WHO) was informed by Dutch authorities of a laboratory-confirmed case of yellow fever. The case-patient is a 26 year-old male who visited Gambia. He had no history of vaccination for yellow fever prior to the trip, patient developed symptoms including fever, nausea and vomiting, he was hospitalized with symptoms of acute liver failure (WHO, 2018)
  • The risk of further local transmission of yellow fever virus related to this case in the Netherlands or further within the WHO European Region is currently considered to be negligible, as no competent vector (insect/mosquito) for yellow fever has been established in the Netherlands (WHO, 2018)

 

What is Yellow Fever?

  • Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes
  • The “yellow” in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients
  • Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue
  • A small proportion of patients who contract the virus develop severe symptoms and approximately half of those die within 7 to 10 days
  • The virus is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and Central and South America
  • Large epidemics of yellow fever occur when infected people introduce the virus into heavily populated areas with high mosquito density and where most people have little or no immunity, due to lack of vaccination
    In these conditions, infected mosquitoes of the Aedes aegypti specie transmit the virus from person to person

 

Vaccine

  • Yellow fever is prevented by an extremely effective vaccine, which is safe and affordable
  • A single dose of yellow fever vaccine is sufficient to confer sustained immunity and life-long protection against yellow fever disease (WHO, 2018)

 

Treatment

  • There is currently no specific anti-viral drug for yellow fever
  • Supportive treatment in hospitals improves survival rates (WHO, 2018)

 

https://www.who.int/csr/don/18-December-2018-yellowfever-netherlands/en/