Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The illness can cause bleeding problems. It is called yellow because it makes the skin and the eyes yellow in color, like jaundice.

There is a vaccine which can stop the disease, but many people in Africa and South America are not vaccinated against it. The World Health Organization say that 200,000 people are made ill with yellow fever every year, and that 30,000 people die from it.

Yellow fever peaked in 1842, killing hundreds of people. There was an outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793.

Yellow fever is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. The name of the mosquito which commonly carries the virus is Aedes Aegypti. The female carries the disease. The yellow fever originated in Central Africa.

Yellow Fever Media

• The yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, taking a bloodmeal.

• Adults of the yellow fever mosquito A. aegypti: The male is on the left, females are on the right. Only the female mosquito bites humans to transmit the disease.

• A photograph of a certificate of vaccination as required to prove that someone has been vaccinated against yellow fever

• Luchemos todos contra el dengue.jpg

  Information campaign for prevention of dengue and yellow fever in Paraguay

• Yellow fever Africa 2009.jpeg

  Areas with risk of yellow fever in Africa (2017)

• Areas with risk of yellow fever in South America (2018)

• Affinerie des sucres (1).JPG

  Sugar curing house, 1762: Sugar pots and jars on sugar plantations served as breeding place for larvae of A. aegypti, the vector of yellow fever.

• Yellow Fever Deaths Lafayette Cemetery 1 New Orleans.jpg

  Headstones of people who died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 can be found in New Orleans' cemeteries

• James Biddle to Sec Nav Thompson re deaths aboard USS Macedonian 3 August 1822 p 1.jpg

  A page from Commodore James Biddle's list of the 76 dead (74 of yellow fever) aboard the USS Macedonian, dated 3 August 1822