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STORY: WHO / YELLOW FEVER
TRT: 2:22
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 31 AUGUST 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / 29-30 AUGUST KINSHASA / POPOKABAKA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, WHO headquarters exterior
31 AUGUST 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Oyewale Tomori, Chair of the Emergency Committee on Yellow Fever, World Health Organization:
“The Emergency Committee decided that the yellow fever situation outbreak in Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo does not constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Although the yellow fever situation is improving, the Committee agreed that this event continues to be serious and requires sustained control measures.”
29-30 AUGUST 2016, KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
3. Wide shot, Pakajuma slum
4. Zoom in, Social mobiliser using megaphone to inform people on vaccination
5. Med shot, old man getting vaccinated
31 AUGUST 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Oyewale Tomori, Chair of the Emergency Committee on Yellow Fever, World Health Organization:
“We heard that Kinshasa has just completed one of the most ambitious emergency yellow fever vaccination campaigns which has ever been done. In just 10 days, more than 7.7 million people in the city of Kinshasa were vaccinated, most of them with a new method using fractionated doses of yellow fever vaccine.”
29-30 AUGUST 2016, KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
7. Wide shot, man being vaccinated
8. Zoom in, vaccines
9. Wide shot, child being vaccinated
31 AUGUST 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Oyewale Tomori, Chair of the Emergency Committee on Yellow Fever, World Health Organization:
“In Africa, we have both dengue and yellow fever, transmitted by the same vectors – aedes aegypti (mosquito) within the urban centres and different species of aedes in the forest areas. If it occurs in Africa, there's no reason why we shouldn't have cases of yellow fever in Asia. Why we don't have it there is part of the research that is going on.”
29-30 AUGUST, 2016, POPOKABAKA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
11. Wide shot, health centre near Angolan border
12. Med shot, boy being vaccinated
29-30 AUGUST 2016, KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
13. Zoom in, child being vaccinated
14. Zoom in, doctor visits patient suspected of having yellow fever
15. Zoom out, pregnant mother sits at the bedside of her 3-year old son suspected of having yellow fever
The World Health Organization (WHO) said today (31 Aug) that the yellow fever outbreak in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not constitute “a public health emergency of international concern.”
Speaking to the press in Geneva, The head of the WHO emergency committee on yellow fever said despite improvements both countries, the outbreak “continues to be serious and requires sustained control measures.”
Oyewale Tomori said vaccination had been the cornerstone of the response. He said more than 28 million doses, an “unprecedented number of vaccines”, were sent from the global emergency stockpile to the affected countries since February this year. Tomori commended the vaccination efforts in the Congolese capital Kinshasa as “one of the most ambitious emergency yellow fever vaccination campaigns which has ever been done.” He said some 7.7 million people were vaccinated in the city in just 10 days using fractionated doses of yellow fever vaccine.
Fractionated doses are diluted doses of the yellow fever vaccine which provide immunity for a year or more. WHO decided to use this method given the limited supply of the vaccine and in order to reach as many people as quickly as possible. WHO said one fifth of the normal dosage was given to all those vaccinated in Kinshasa except for pregnant women and infants aged between 9 and 24 months, who both received the full dose.
WHO said there had also been an intensified response around vector control, enhanced surveillance, technical assistance and the strengthening of lab capacity as well as the deployment of mobile labs. It said this resulted in some positive trends in both countries with the last case in Angola documented on 23 June and in the DRC on 12 July.
