Group items tagged

Fever Headache Muscle pain Backache Chills Loss of appetite Nausea and/or vomiting

High fever Abdominal pain Bleeding from the gums, nose, eyes, and/or stomach Vomit that appears black due to blood content Low blood pressure Liver failure, which may lead to jaundice Kidney failure Confusion Seizure Coma

SymptomsYellow fever symptoms appear within a week after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito. Typically, acute phase symptoms will persist for 3 to 4 days, and then disappear. A small percentage of people progress into the toxic phase. The toxic phase symptoms begin within 24 hours of the end of the acute phase. Recovery from yellow fever provides lifetime immunity from the disease.

Paul I. Howell, MPH; Prof. Frank Hadley Collins/Centers for Disease Control and...Paul I. Howell, MPH; Prof. Frank Hadley Collins/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Image Number: 9534)An infectious disease, yellow fever infects humans, all species of monkeys, and certain other small mammals. The virus is transmitted from animals to humans and among humans by several species of mosquitoes. Yellow fever is one of the great epidemic diseases of the tropical world, and in earlier centuries it was one of the great plagues of the New World. At one time the tropical and subtropical regions of

Yellow fever

Yellow fever (YF) is a viral haemorrhagic fever transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Yellow fever can be recognized from historic texts stretching back 400 years. Infection causes a wide spectrum of disease, from mild symptoms to severe illness and death. The "yellow" in the name is explained by the jaundice that affects some patients, causing yellow eyes and yellow skin. There are three types of transmission cycle: sylvatic, intermediate and urban. All three cycles exist in Africa, but in South America, only sylvatic and urban yellow fever occur.

Sylvatic (or jungle) yellow fever occurs in tropical rainforests where monkeys, infected by sylvatic mosquitoes, pass the virus onto other mosquitoes that feed on them; these mosquitoes, in turn bite and infect humans entering the forest. This produces sporadic cases, the majority of which are often young men working in the forest e.g. logging. The intermediate cycle of yellow fever transmission occurs in humid or semi-humid savannahs of Africa, and can produce small-scale epidemics in rural villages. Semi-domestic mosquitoes infect both monkey and human hosts and increased contact between man and infected mosquito leads to disease. This is the most common type of outbreak seen in recent decades in Africa. Urban yellow fever results in large explosive epidemics when travellers from rural areas introduce the virus into areas with high human population density. Domestic mosquitoes, most notably Aedes aegypti, carry the virus from person to person. These outbreaks tend to spread outwards from one source to cover a wide area. Yellow fever can be prevented by vaccination. In order to protect people living in areas at high risk of yellow fever transmission, WHO's dual strategy for prevention of yellow fever epidemics relies on preventive mass immunization campaigns followed by infant routine immunization. Yellow fever causes epidemics that can affect 20% of the population. When epidemics occur in unvaccinated populations, case-fatality rates may exceed 50%. No treatment beyond supportive care exists. For more information

Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The "yellow" in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients. Up to 50% of severely affected persons without treatment will die from yellow fever. There are an estimated 200 000 cases of yellow fever, causing 30 000 deaths, worldwide each year, with 90% occurring in Africa. The virus is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and Latin America, with a combined population of over 900 million people. The number of yellow fever cases has increased over the past two decades due to declining population immunity to infection, deforestation, urbanization, population movements and climate change. There is no specific treatment for yellow fever. Treatment is symptomatic, aimed at reducing the symptoms for the comfort of the patient. Vaccination is the most important preventive measure against yellow fever. The vaccine is safe, affordable and highly effective, and a single dose of yellow fever vaccine is sufficient to confer sustained immunity and life-long protection against yellow fever disease and a booster dose of yellow fever vaccine is not needed. The vaccine provides effective immunity within 30 days for 99% of persons vaccinated.

WHO response WHO is the Secretariat for the International Coordinating Group for Yellow Fever Vaccine Provision (ICG). The ICG maintains an emergency stockpile of yellow fever vaccines to ensure rapid response to outbreaks in high risk countries. The Yellow Fever Initiative is a preventive control strategy of vaccination led by WHO and supported by UNICEF and National Governments, with a particular focus on most high endemic countries in Africa where the disease is most prominent. The Initiative recommends including yellow fever vaccines in routine infant immunizations (starting at age 9 months), implementing mass vaccination campaigns in high-risk areas for people in all age groups aged 9 months and older, and maintaining surveillance and outbreak response capacity. Between 2007 and 2012, 12 countries have completed preventive yellow fever vaccination campaigns: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The Yellow Fever Initiative is financially supported by the GAVI Alliance, the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Ministries of Health, and the country-level partners.

The symptoms and signs of cholera are a watery diarrhea that often contains flecks of whitish material (mucus and some epithelial cells) that are about the size of pieces of rice. The diarrhea is termed "rice-water stool" (See figure 1) and smells "fishy." The volume of diarrhea can be enormous; high levels of diarrheal fluid such as 250 cc per kg or about 10 to 18 liters over 24 hours for a 70 kg adult can occur. People may go on to develop one or more of the following symptoms and signs: Vomiting Rapid heart rate Loss of skin elasticity (washer woman hands sign; see figure 2) Dry mucous membranes Low blood pressure Thirst Muscle cramps Restlessness or irritability (especially in children)

Those infected require immediate hydration to prevent these symptoms from continuing because these signs and symptoms indicate that the person is becoming or is dehydrated and may go on to develop severe cholera.

If untreated, the patient may die within a few hours.

that diseases are caused by microorganisms.

Building on this new understanding of disease, scientists and physicians achieved incredible successes, identifying fifty causative agents of diseases ranging from typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera, plague and malaria between 1880 and 1920.

In the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down and peace was on the horizon.

The Americans had joined in the fight, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the Germans. Deep within the trenches these men lived through some of the most brutal conditions of life, which it seemed could not be any worse. Then, in pockets across the globe, something erupted that seemed as benign as the common cold. The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of morbidity was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans (Tice). An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic, ten times as many as in the world war. Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy (Deseret News). An estimated 43,000 servicemen mobilized for WWI died of influenza (Crosby). 1918 would go down as unforgettable year of suffering and death and yet of peace. As noted in the Journal of the American Medical Association final edition of 1918:

The influenza pandemic circled the globe. Most of humanity felt the effects of this strain of the influenza virus. It spread following the path of its human car