Yellow Fever
A Guide for Travelers
Excerpted from CDCP, where
you can find much more information.
Yellow Fever requirements by country
Causes
Yellow Fever is common to Africa and South America and is
caused by a virus spread by infected mosquitoes.
Yellow fever endemic countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon,
Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia,
Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia.
In South America risks in: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela .
Symptoms:
Some infected individuals have no symptoms. When they do occur, symptoms take 3 to 6 days to appear and range from self-limiting fever to sudden onset of fever with chills, headache, muscle pain (back pain), loss of appetite, nausea and/or vomiting. In severe cases, yellow fever can lead to shock, bleeding, organ failure, jaundice (i.e., yellowing of skin and eyes) and death.
Precautions
Vaccination is the only sure prevention for yellow fever.
There is an effective single-dose vaccine.
The vaccine becomes protective after 10 days, and
gives immunity for around 10 years.
Use of mosquito repellents, full covering clothing and screened housing will decrease exposure risk.
Contagiousness
Duration
Treatment
There is no specific treatment for yellow fever. The overall case-fatality rate may reach 20% to 40% in single outbreaks.