700,000 infants to be vaccinated against yellow fever

The yellow fever vaccine will be used for the first time by the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to inoculate some 700,000 children in 2003, the UN children's agency UNICEF said on Monday.

Children will be vaccinated against the contagious disease at the age of nine months, at the same time as they receive the measles vaccine. The yellow fever vaccine will be available in 46 urban centres in the DRC.

UNICEF said this brought to seven the number of diseases included in the DRC's routine vaccination programme, the others being: measles, tuberculosis, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, and polio.

The DRC is among 34 countries in sub-Saharan Africa at risk of yellow fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. There have been numerous outbreaks of the disease in the country. In 2001, 72 cases were notified to the authorities and four people died. However, UNICEF said these figures represented only "part of the reality", as most cases were not systematically notified.

Previously, the yellow fever vaccine was adminstered selectively to travellers and sometimes in refugee camps.

The DRC's Health Minister, Mashako Mamba, is quoted by UNICEF as saying this was the first time a new vaccine had been introduced to the country since independence in 1960. Its introduction was supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.