MESSAGE LIBRARY:
Yellow Fever
What is yellow fever?
Yellow fever is a disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. 'Yellow' refers to yellowness (jaundice) that develops in some patients.
Signs and symptoms
If you have a fever, headache or backache, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting or yellow eyes, you may have yellow fever. This may be followed by bleeding from the gums, nose or in the stool.
How do you treat yellow fever?
There is no specific treatment for yellow fever. Most patients recover and their symptoms disappear after three to four days. If symptoms recur or deteriorate after this time, seek help from your nearest health centre.
How to prevent yellow fever
There are two main ways to prevent yellow fever. The most important preventive measure is to get vaccinated with the yellow fever vaccine. The vaccine is safe and a single dose gives you life-long protection against yellow fever disease. You can get a vaccine from [insert info]. You can also protect yourself from mosquito bites by sleeping under a mosquito net, using insect repellents, and wearing long sleeved clothes and long dresses.
Age range for vaccinations
Everyone over 6 months is eligible for the vaccine. However, if you are pregnant, or have a weak immune system you should tell your health worker who may advise you not to receive the vaccine.
REFERENCES
For more information on this topic, we recommend you read the following references.
World Health Organisation (2019). Yellow fever fact sheet.
www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/yellow-fever
Centers for Disease Control (2019). Yellow Fever.
www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/index.html
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