The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that 160 million out of 200 million of Nigeria’s population are at risk of yellow fever.
Speaking through its communications officer, Dr. Anne Eudes Jean Baptiste, Medical Officer for the World Health Organization Nigeria said this contributes to Africa’s 25% risk of Yellow fever.
Describing the deadly virus, the medical expert says it is usually transmitted by mosquitoes, thus killing half of those infected within 7 to 10 days.
“Home to some of the world’s most densely populated cities, Nigeria is at risk of both urban and sylvatic (jungle) exposure to the disease. Sylvatic exposure is the transmission of yellow fever from mosquitos that have bitten animals and non-human primates. Workers in mining and agriculture are particularly vulnerable to this type of transmission.
“Yellow fever is dangerous because a small percentage of patients will go through a more toxic phase of the disease. By then they will experience fever, and have a system failure, mainly in the kidney and liver. They may experience bleeding coming from the mouth, nose, and eyes and within 7 to 10 days, half of them will die.”
According to the statement, it explained that though, the Nigerian government has put in measures to strengthen surveillance and laboratory testing in order to bridge the gaps in the detection of the disease.
This is no doubt since 2017 has helped Nigeria vaccinate over 45 million people against yellow fever during the COVID-19 pandemic even as it strives to the global efforts to eliminate yellow fever epidemics by 2026.
“We have strengthened surveillance considerably. We have reference laboratories in the country that have been strengthened and are being supported and assessed to make sure they are meeting all the performance parameters in terms of sample collection and referral to our reference labs in Abuja.
“Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have given out over 66 million doses* in 2020 and 2021 to protect people from yellow fever outbreaks. This achievement has been possible through routine immunization, as well as mass vaccination campaigns that identify gaps in the population and proactively target vulnerable communities,” said Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, Director General, Nigeria Center for Disease Control.
Also, narrating his experience, a father of five, Muhammed Awal from Taraba State said “I lost my second child to yellow fever. It was a very traumatizing experience for my family and me.
“We rushed the child to hospital when he started showing symptoms of the disease, and he died two to three days after because his internal organs had been very damaged.”
In 2016, the deadly outbreaks of yellow fever in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with spread to China, put the African continent on notice of this disease, thus bringing to the setting up of the EYE Strategy, a partnership between the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to response and identified Nigeria as a high-risk country aimed at eliminating yellow fever epidemics by 2026, through a single-shot vaccine that gives lifelong immunity, so as to protect almost 1 billion people in Africa and the Americans.
