Yellow fever is spreading in Africa, but U.S. officials aren’t worried about the virus reaching American borders.
Yellow fever is similar to the Zika virus that is spreading in Latin America in that they both are spread by mosquito bites. However, yellow fever is far deadlier than the Zika virus, which rarely kills people.
The latest outbreak started in Angola in January. The African country has had nearly 2,900 suspected cases of yellow fever and 325 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Two other African countries had confirmed cases of yellow fever spread from Angola: Democratic Republic of Congo (44 cases) and Kenya (two). China has another 11 cases linked to Angola.
Uganda has 68 suspected cases of yellow fever, but the outbreak doesn’t appear to be linked to Angola, WHO said.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not expecting local transmission of the virus in the U.S.
“There has been no local transmission of yellow fever in the United States since the early 1900s,” spokeswoman Laura Bellinger told the Washington Examiner. “However, CDC is concerned about travelers going to Africa and South America. Travelers can return to the United States with a yellow fever virus infection.”
The CDC routinely recommends that travelers to any destination at risk for yellow fever get the vaccine for the virus. The agency has travel notices for Angola, Congo and Uganda.
Bellinger said the CDC has been providing experts, vaccination campaigns and training to the affected countries.
“This work includes not only vaccinating communities, but educating them about why vaccination is critical,” she said.
As of late last month, more than 14 million vaccinations have been provided to the affected African countries.
While the outbreak has mainly been in Africa, there have been other cases closer to home. The WHO is looking into sporadic cases in Brazil and Peru.
As of May 8, there were 43 suspected cases of yellow fever and four deaths in Peru.
“This event is not related to the Angolan outbreak,” the WHO said in its latest situation report. “The risk of geographical spread … to the Pacific coast is unlikely.”
While the cases aren’t related to Angola, it shows the needs for vaccines in such countries, the organization said.
The WHO is very concerned about Angola as there is “persistent local transmission in Luanda despite the fact that approximately 8 million people have been vaccinated,” according to a recent report.
Unlike the Zika virus, there is a vaccine for yellow fever but there isn’t any other treatment. The National Institutes of Health hopes to start human trials later this year on a Zika vaccine.
A panel of World Health Organization experts ruled last month that the outbreak didn’t constitute a global health emergency. Such a designation was made for the 2014 Ebola outbreak and for Zika.
Most people infected with yellow fever have no illness or only a mild one. However, of the people who get symptoms, about 15 percent progress to a second stage of more severe symptoms such as a high fever and failure of major organs.
About 20-50 percent of patients who develop a severe case of the disease can die, according to the CDC.
Countries in the Americas are trying to contain the Zika virus, which has spread to more than 40 countries and territories.
Right now the virus isn’t being spread via mosquitoes in the U.S., but there are more than 500 cases across the continental U.S. Most of those cases are from people who recently traveled to a country where Zika is spreading.
