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Home > "Could Yellow Fever Become the Next Pandemic?"

"Could Yellow Fever Become the Next Pandemic?" [1]

"Health experts struggle to contain a massive outbreak of the deadly mosquito-borne infection".

"KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo — In the doorway of a one-room yellow fever ward in downtown Kinshasa, a toddler named Julia is slung over her mother’s shoulder. Moments later a nurse directs mother and child to the last vacant bed and inserts an intravenous line into the girl’s wrist. Her lemon-yellow eyes staring vacantly ahead, Julia does not flinch as the needle punctures her skin. She could be awaiting a hand massage or a manicure.

In the bed adjacent to her, 12-year-old Elohim has one knee propped up like a tent stake. His palms and the skin under his fingernails are yellow with jaundice. His gaze trails up a fluid line that coils around the bed net up to his IV bag as he watches it drain.

'Suspected case,' the 50-year-old nurse, Paul Djonga, mutters in French—jabbing his thumb over his shoulder toward the headboard where the boy is draped. 'Suspected?' I ask, certain that a diagnosis could be easily confirmed with a lab test. Djonga nods. 'They’re all only ‘suspected,’ he says. The necessary blood tests to verify a diagnosis have not been conducted."

Emily Baumgaertner reports for the Scientific American August 15, 2016. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Outbreak Of Yellow Fever In DR Congo Could Go Global, Children's Charity Warns" (Reuters) [3]

"Yellow Fever: Georgetown Expert Calls On Who To Reconvene Emergency Committee, Spread To Republic Of Congo" (Outbreak News Today) [4]

Environmental Health [5]
International [6]
Public [7]
Source: Scientific American [2], 08/16/2016
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Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/headlines/could-yellow-fever-become-next-pandemic [2] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-yellow-fever-become-the-next-pandemic/ [3] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-health-yellowfever-idUSKCN10Q288 [4] http://outbreaknewstoday.com/yellow-fever-georgetown-expert-calls-on-who-to-reconvene-emergency-committee-spread-to-republic-of-congo-45618/ [5] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/environmental-health [6] https://www.sej.org/category/region/international [7] https://www.sej.org/taxonomy/term/81