Yellow Fever: NCDC Announces 14 Deaths In 10 States

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has announced 14 deaths in 10 states from suspected cases of yellow fever between January to July 2022.

The NCDC stated this via its official website on Sunday.

It said the affected states included Abia (one), Bayelsa (one), Benue (one), Imo (one), Kaduna (one), Katsina (two), Kebbi (one), Taraba (two), Yobe (one) and Zamfara (three).

Newsmen reports that the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes.

The “yellow” in the name refers to jaundice that affects some patients.

While the 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 seven to 10 days.

The Nigerian Public Health Institute said that cumulatively a total of 1,179 suspected cases of yellow fever were reported from 416 local government areas between Jan. 1 and July 31, 2022.

It said that one case each was confirmed from five states, namely Sokoto (Dange-Shuni LGA), Osun (Atakunmosa East LGA), Ondo (Akure South LGA), Anambra (Idemili South LGA) and Imo (Nwangele LGA).

The NCDC said that male to female ratio for suspected cases was 1:1.7 with males 637 (54 per cent) and females 542 (46 per cent).

It stated that 74 per cent of cases were aged 30 years and below.

“One hundred and twenty-six (10.7 per cent) of 1,179 suspected cases had at least one dose of the yellow fever vaccine,” it said

 The agency said that its coordinating response activities through the National Multi-agency Yellow Fever Technical Working Group.

Newsmen reports  that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt across several other areas including the increase in the risk of measles and the probable increase in yellow fever outbreaks due to delayed planned vaccination campaigns in the country.

Meanwhile, yellow fever is preventable with an extremely effective vaccine that is safe and affordable.

A single dose of yellow fever vaccine is sufficient to grant sustained immunity and life-long protection against yellow fever disease. A booster dose of the vaccine is not needed.

As part of efforts to support Nigeria in preventive mass vaccination campaigns (PMVCs), through its Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics (EYE) Strateg, it  said it would be reaching out to states like Ogun, Gombe, Kano, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Borno and Enugu before the end of this year.

It stated: “Further yellow fever vaccination campaigns are planned in Nigeria in the states of Ogun and Gombe in June 2022.”

It said that these campaigns targeted 8.8 million people for protection. Additional PMVCs will be implemented in the latter part of 2022 in the states of Kano, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Borno and Enugu.