Epidemic Diseases I | Page 7

Yellow Fever

Description

Yellow fever is an ongoing epidemic in certain regions within africa, mainly the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.

Causes

Yellow Fever is transmitted through mosquito bites by the species ,Aedes aegypti, which in some cases transmit the virus from primates to humans in more wild/ jungle regions

Symptoms

Symptoms usually appear after 3-6 days

Occurs in two phases:

1st phase"mild": Fever, muscle pain, headache/ backaches, nausea and vomiting

15% of infected suffer from:

2nd phase : jaundice, abdominal pain, vomiting. bleeding from orifices, kidney function worsens

Treatment

No specific treatment, only to treat mild symptoms as they occur(dehydration , fever, infections), half of those that suffer from the 2nd phase will die within 10-14 days .