Search
  1. Home
  2. West Africa
  3. Liberia

Yellow fever outbreak.

    ABIDJAN

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has sent emergency vaccines to Liberia to stop a yellow fever outbreak.

    So far the disease has claimed four lives and infected at least 80 people in the counties of Margibi, Nimba, Montserrado, Grand Bassa and Grand Cape Mount, Dr. Mamadou Kone, a member of a WHO medical team that fights epidemics in the region, told IRIN on Wednesday. Cases were initially reported in Grand Cape Mount, which borders Sierra Leone, but infections spread to the east and south.

    The last yellow fever epidemic in Liberia was in 1997 in Nimba County but few deaths were reported, Kone said. Like malaria, the mosquito-borne illness is more likely to break out during the rainy season.

    The WHO has appealed for more than US $400,000 to vaccinate those at immediate risk, according to the BBC.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join