Yellow fever deaths now 46

Ghana has as of December 10, recorded 46 Yellow Fever (YF) deaths with 102 confirmed cases out of about 600 suspected cases recorded.

The latest death was recorded on Thursday, December 9, aside from three more new cases.

The outbreak, first recorded in October 2021, is now in four regions: Savannah, Upper West, Bono and Oti regions.

Dr Dennis Laryea, Acting Head of Disease Surveillance at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), told the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, on Friday that although the YF infections were gradually reducing, the Service was still recording some suspected cases.

“The outbreak started in West and North Gonja, but we have not recorded any case from these two districts over a period, we are, however, recording a few cases from Central Gonja, Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kaba districts,” he said.

Dr Laryea said the GHS had done an elaborate vaccination campaign in the areas at risk and would by next week receive a donation of about 400,000 doses of YF vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) to expand the YF vaccination drive.

He said the drive would target about 600,000 unvaccinated persons in the districts of concern.

Dr Franklin Aseidu-Bekoe, Director for Public Health at the GHS, urged all persons from the Region who had fever, general weakness, headache, nausea and vomiting, to immediately report to the nearest health facility.

He encouraged individuals who had never been vaccinated against Yellow Fever to do so.

“Avoid mosquito bites by wearing clothing that covers all parts of the body and report to the nearest health facility if you have a fever and, especially when you have yellowish discolouration of your eyes,” he advised.

Yellow Fever is a tropical virus disease affecting the liver and kidneys, causing fever and jaundice and often fatal. It is transmitted by mosquitoes.

A person with Yellow Fever may have fever and jaundice in the early stages and later bleed from any of the body openings like the nose and mouth.

One may contract Yellow Fever through the bite of the Aedes mosquito and prevention is mainly by taking the Yellow Fever vaccine or preventing the bite of a mosquito.

A Yellow fever vaccine provides lifelong immunity to an individual.