Q: If I am going to a country on WHO list of countries, but has not had any Yellow Fever cases in years, do I still need the Yellow Fever vaccine?
A: What you are basically saying is that if the country has not had any cases of Yellow Fever disease reported for many years, is there still a risk of catching Yellow Fever. The answer is YES.
Here is a brief excerpt from a leading Travel Health Expert
"Mind the phenomenon "epidemiologic silence" - the zoonotic (yellow fever) virus may be present for decades in the forest without "outbreak". Some cases of yellow fever in tourists in South America described in the literature were in unvaccinated tourists doing a cruise for a few days near Manaus - not during an outbreak. Remind the epidemics in the rift valley in Kenya in the nineties - the came out of the blue, but the virus was present there in the nature all time. We personally described in Clinical Infectious Diseases 2002; 35:e113-6 a Belgian lady who catched yellow fever within a FEW days during a stay in Gambia, 5-stars hotel, but visiting game parks during daytime - fatal - there were no human cases for decades in Gambia (probably because of the good vaccination coverage), so indeed the disease may be present in nature, lingering around between mosquitos and monkeys in the trees
Fons Van Gompel MD, DTM.
A: What you are basically saying is that if the country has not had any cases of Yellow Fever disease reported for many years, is there still a risk of catching Yellow Fever. The answer is YES.
Here is a brief excerpt from a leading Travel Health Expert
"Mind the phenomenon "epidemiologic silence" - the zoonotic (yellow fever) virus may be present for decades in the forest without "outbreak". Some cases of yellow fever in tourists in South America described in the literature were in unvaccinated tourists doing a cruise for a few days near Manaus - not during an outbreak. Remind the epidemics in the rift valley in Kenya in the nineties - the came out of the blue, but the virus was present there in the nature all time. We personally described in Clinical Infectious Diseases 2002; 35:e113-6 a Belgian lady who catched yellow fever within a FEW days during a stay in Gambia, 5-stars hotel, but visiting game parks during daytime - fatal - there were no human cases for decades in Gambia (probably because of the good vaccination coverage), so indeed the disease may be present in nature, lingering around between mosquitos and monkeys in the trees
Fons Van Gompel MD, DTM.
Chief Physician of the Medical Services & Travel Clinic
Institute for Tropical Medicine Antwerp Belgium."
Institute for Tropical Medicine Antwerp Belgium."
Comment: What this means is that while no humans may be getting infected, the Yellow Fever virus can still survive in the wild, being transmitted in monkeys & mosquitoes. Hence if you are going to an area with 'possible' Yellow Fever, even if this has not happened in years, it is preferable to be vaccinated, unless you have contraindications to the same. Talk to your travel health doctor, or call the experts in India at +91 - 8010777722
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