WHO said the figure makes up around 25 per cent of all the people at risk of the disease in Africa.

Nigeria 160 Million People At Risk of Yellow Fever in Nigeria - Official

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said not less than 160 million of Nigeria’s estimated 206 million population are currently at risk of Yellow Fever. The figure, the global health organisation said, makes up around 25 per cent of all the people at risk of the disease in Africa. But it confirmed that within the last two years during the Coronavirus pandemic, the country has vaccinated about 45 million people against the disease, almost double the figure of those vaccinated against the rampaging pandemic. WHO Africa region made the revelation in a recent publication on its official website, noting that the estimated vaccination figure was given by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) at the time of filming two documentaries under its Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) Strategy. The EYE Strategy, a partnership between WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, was said to have been set up in response to Yellow Fever, and it identified Nigeria as a high-risk country.

WHO recalled that since 2016 when the deadly outbreaks of Yellow Fever were recorded in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which reportedly spread to China, the African continent was put on notice for the disease. The global health organisation said the EYE Strategy was part of the efforts toward stemming the tide and freeing the affected countries from the consequences associated with the disease. In her comments, WHO’s Medical Officer in Nigeria, Anne Jean-Baptiste, said “yellow fever is dangerous because a small percentage of patients will go through a more toxic phase of the disease. She added that infected people will experience fever, have a system failure, mainly in the kidney and liver, may experience bleeding from the mouth, nose and eyes, within seven to 10 days, and that half of the patients “will die.” With Nigeria being the home to some of the world’s most densely populated cities, WHO noted that the country is at risk of both urban and sylvatic (jungle) exposure to the disease. It added that workers in mining and agriculture are particularly vulnerable to the disease. The global health body attributed the resurgence of yellow fever in 2017, after 15 years, to gaps in the detection of the disease and its transmission. It, however, noted that “as surveillance and laboratory testing have been strengthened, improved information about the distribution of the disease in humans has become available.”

Source: This news is originally published by allafrica

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