TANZANIA – Tanzania has commenced a yellow fever vaccination drive in an effort to contain the contagious viral disease after an outbreak was recorded in neighboring country Kenya.
Yellow fever is a viral infection spread by a particular type of mosquito and the virus incubates in the body for three to six days.
The most common mild symptoms in the initial stages are fever, muscle pain with prominent backache, headache, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting while in extreme situations high fever returns and several body systems are affected usually the liver and the kidneys.
Recently, Kenya reported an outbreak of yellow fever in the country after three patients died from the disease in Isiolo County while Uganda, South Sudan and Chad have also detected suspected cases.
The Tanzanian health ministry has established a variety of measures following the yellow fever outbreak reports to curb the transmission of the acute disease making rounds in neighboring countries.
Tanzanian Minister of Health Hon. Ummy Mwalimu has urged provincial referral hospital officials to start administering the yellow fever vaccine to everyone travelling out of the country.
In addition, health experts who are supervising health issues at borders are planning to issue electronic yellow fever vaccination certificates to deal with the challenge of fake vaccination cards.
“Health personnel at all the country’s points of entry have been directed to ensure that travelers from high risk countries in parts of Africa and Latin America are not allowed entry without proof of yellow fever vaccination certificates,” she stressed.
Previously, Tanzania has traditionally imposed a requirement for yellow fever certificates for travelers from vulnerable countries which is usually determined by past reported cases or outbreaks.
Not only is the government conducting regular demands for valid vaccination certificates from travelers entering the country but also ramping up local vaccination drives among vulnerable people to avoid the possibility of cross-border spillover.
Minister Ummy Mwalimu has also advised Tanzanians to take precautions against yellow fever such as ensuring that their environment is clean to stop mosquitoes from breeding in an effort to prevent the spread of the infectious disease.
“The ministry will ensure adequate availability of yellow fever vaccines in the country, oversee and stress cleanliness of the environments to check mosquitoes breeding along with continued civic yellow fever education to the citizens,” Hon. Ummy Mwalimu emphasized.
Additionally, health authorities are using a rapid detection system which was launched in 2000 to report infectious diseases such as yellow fever even though Tanzania has not recorded any case of yellow fever so far.
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