Yellow fever
Yellow fever occurs in Africa and Latin America and used to be known as ‘Yellow Jack’ among European sailors who visited the tropics. Once in a community it can spread rapidly. It is characterised by fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea and vomiting. Most patients improve and the symptoms will disappear but in some the disease becomes ‘toxic’. There is high mortality once the disease has entered the toxic phase.
There is no cure for yellow fever but there is a vaccine making monitoring and rapid vaccination critical in stopping the disease once an outbreak occurs. However it is expensive and availability is not sufficient to protect other parts of the world if the disease should move there from Latin America.
Further information