Vaccination campaigns in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal and Togo are complete, leaving Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Existing funds would cover only four of the seven remaining countries.
“If we do not sustain this programme, yellow fever outbreaks will continue to affect populations who can least afford it,” WHO’s West Africa immunisation adviser, Fenella Avokey, said in a communiqué
The ICG also includes the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Yellow fever is caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. Preventive vaccination campaigns are carried out annually, in addition to emergency vaccinations in outbreak zones, according to WHO.
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