YELLOW FEVER
OVERVIEW:
Take care to avoid mosquito bites if you live in or are visiting a malaria-prone area. Mosquitoes are most active at night and early in the morning. To avoid mosquito bites, you should take the following precautions:
- Ensure that your skin is well-protected.
- Use an insect repellent on your skin to keep insects at bay.
- Repellent should be applied on clothing.
- Sleeping with a net over your head is a good idea.
Malaria preventative and treatment medications are frequently interchangeable. Where you're going, how long you'll be gone, and your personal health all influence the drug you take.
CAUSES:
Yellow fever is caused by a virus carried by the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. Mosquitoes thrive in and around human settlements, breeding in even the purest water. The yellow fever virus is most usually found in humans and monkeys.
When a mosquito bites you, the yellow fever virus (or flavivirus) is transmitted. When mosquitoes bite a human or a monkey infected with the virus, they become infected. It is impossible for the sickness to transfer from one person to another.
YELLOW FEVER SYMPTOMS:
The yellow fever virus incubates in the body for 3 to 6 days after infection. Many people do not have symptoms, but when they do, the following are the most common:
- Fever
- Muscle aches and pains, as well as a severe backache
- Headache
- Appetite loss.
- Vomiting or nausea.
Symptoms usually disappear after 3 to 4 days.
Within 24 hours of recovering from initial symptoms, a tiny percentage of patients, however, enter a second, more hazardous phase. A high fever returns, affecting multiple body systems, most notably the liver and kidneys. Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes, thus the name 'yellow fever'), black urine, and abdominal pain with vomiting are also common at this stage. Bleeding from the lips, nose, eyes, or stomach is possible. In the toxic phase, half of the patients die within 7 to 10 days.
DIAGNOSIS:
Yellow fever is notoriously difficult to diagnose, particularly in its early stages. It's easy to mix up a more serious instance with:
- Malaria is a serious illness.
- Leptospirosis
- Poisoning, viral hepatitis, other hemorrhagic fevers, infection with other flaviviruses (such as dengue hemorrhagic fever), and other flavivirus infections
The virus can sometimes be detected in the early stages of the disease through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in blood and urine. Antibody testing will be required at a later stage..
TREATMENT:
Yellow fever has no known cure. Yellow fever treatment entails managing symptoms and aiding your immune system in battling the infection by doing the following:
- Getting adequate fluids via your veins, if necessary
- Obtaining oxygen
- Keeping a normal blood pressure
- Getting blood transfusions is a common occurrence.
- If you have kidney failure, you may need dialysis.
- Getting treatment for any other infections that may arise
RISK FACTORS:
- If you visit to a region where the yellow fever virus is still carried by mosquitoes, you may be at risk of contracting the sickness. Sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America are among these regions.
- Even if there are no recent reports of infected persons in certain places, you are still at risk. It's possible that the local population has been vaccinated and is immune to the disease, or that yellow fever cases have simply not been identified and recorded.
- If you plan on visiting these places, you can protect yourself by getting a yellow fever vaccine at least a few weeks ahead of time.
- The yellow fever virus can infect anyone at any time.
PREVENTION:
The best approach to avoid getting infected with the Yellow Fever virus is to avoid mosquito bites. Mosquitoes can bite at any time of day or night. If vaccination is suggested for you, use insect repellent, wear long-sleeved shirts and pants, treat clothing and gear, and be vaccinated before visiting..
LEARN MORE ABOUT DISEASE CAUSED BY MOSQUITO BITES
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