European Commission helps with vaccines

The European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) said on Monday that it was providing support for an immunisation campaign against yellow fever in Liberia. The commission said that since July 2000, more than 110 suspected cases of yellow fever had been reported in the western county of Grand Cape Mount, on the border with Sierra Leone. Infections have spread to the east and south and at least four people have died. “This outbreak could spread not only to the surrounding counties of Bomi and Lofa, but could also threaten Monrovia and certain areas of Sierra Leone,” the commission said. Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, with 200,000 doses of vaccines from the World Health Organisation, has launched a massive immunisation campaign to control the outbreak. Sixty-eight teams have been mobilised and more than 60 percent of the target population have been vaccinated. The European Union also is to support a US $53,500 proposal of Medecins Sans Frontieres-Belgium to cover the Sorogbwema and Makpele chiefdoms in the Southern Province in Sierra Leone. The last yellow fever epidemic in Liberia was in 1997 but few deaths were reported. Like malaria, the mosquito-borne disease is more likely to break out during the rainy season.