DRC: Yellow Fever Case Linked to Local Mosquito

yellow-feverA new case of yellow fever has been detected in democratic republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

According to the WHO, the case, which originated from a local mosquito, has been confirmed this week after testing by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar and the National Institute of Biomedical Research.

The WHO said, as of 2 June 2016, close to 2 million people had been vaccinated against Yellow Fever in the provinces of Kinshasa and Kongo Central.

‘‘Many people have rushed to get vaccinated including many people from districts that were not targeted for vaccination. This is good news because it means people understand the importance of vaccination,” WHO said.

DRC is located in a geographical area known to be the Yellow Fever endemic and autochthonous cases are regularly reported.

Since January 2016, autochthonous suspected cases have been recorded in the provinces of Bas-Uele, Equateur, Kasai central, and Tshuapa.

The Ministry of Health of DRC has activated the National Committee for outbreak management to respond to the outbreak, ’the WHO website reports.