DAKAR, Senegal (AP) – One of the largest yellow fever outbreaks in decades could soon spread globally, aid group Save the Children warned on Tuesday as the World Health Organization is set to launch one of the largest emergency vaccination campaigns ever attempted in Africa.
The massive vaccination campaign begins this week in Congo and Angola, with the aim of vaccinating more than 14 million people in more than 8,000 locations to stem the disease’s spread. WHO says more than 400 people have already died in this outbreak.
But supplies of the vaccine are limited. The more than 18 million vaccines that have been sent to the continent are far short of the 40 million doses some experts think are needed to contain the outbreak, according to a recent Associated Press investigation.
WHO says it must now use one-fifth the standard vaccine dose, which lasts about a year.
?Protecting as many people as possible is at the heart of this strategy. With a limited supply, we need to use these vaccines very carefully,” said William Perea, WHO’s Coordinator for the Control of Epidemic Diseases Unit.