Angolan Yellow Fever Outbreak Strains Mosquito-Borne Disease Experts, Runs Down Vaccine Supplies

Huffington Post: Will Angola’s Yellow Fever Outbreak Be ‘Another Zika?’
“A yellow fever outbreak that began in the capital city of Luanda in December has infected 450 people and killed 178, according to the World Health Organization. The mosquito-transmitted disease has since spread to six of Angola’s 18 provinces…” (Schumaker, 4/4).

New York Times: Yellow Fever Outbreak in Angola Strains Health Organizations
“Angola is experiencing a major urban yellow fever outbreak that threatens other countries, including China, and is exposing how poorly prepared the world is to fight two mosquito-borne epidemics at once. … The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it cannot give Africa as much help as it normally would: Most of its mosquito-disease experts are fighting the Zika virus in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere…” (McNeil, 4/4).

SciDev.Net: Angolan yellow fever outbreak highlights dangerous vaccine shortage
“…[T]he 80-year-old process [used to manufacture yellow fever vaccine] is decidedly low-tech and hard to scale up — and that’s become a problem, because a big yellow fever outbreak that started in December 2015 in Luanda, Angola’s capital, has emptied the world’s strategic reserves of the vaccine…” (Kupferschmidt, 4/4).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.