Medical teams vaccinate 10,000 to 15,000 people per day. These actions are simply not enough. Even if all worldwide stocks of yellow fever vaccine were taken into account, the current campaign would still require an additional 1.5 million doses in order to provide vaccinations for people at risk. This vaccine deficit may have grave consequences, especially during the next rainy season in May, when conditions become favorable for yellow-fever carrying mosquitoes to spread the disease. All people at risk must therefore be vaccinated by that time.
Yellow fever is a viral disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes.
Approximately 35 African countries, as well as certain areas of South America, are regarded as at risk for yellow fever. Two recent epidemics in Nigeria and in Bolivia should have raised awareness among the international community as to the need for stocks of the vaccine. Since 1988, MSF has worked in Guinea running tuberculosis programmes and providing assistance to refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia.