 GENEVA - A yellow fever outbreak in Sudan has killed another 10 people, bringing the known toll to 131 deaths out of 530 cases in less than three weeks, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.
| Might be easier if you guys became Presbyterians ... |
| Lamb's blood on the door posts sometimes helps, too... |
All reported cases have been in South Kordofan state in central Sudan, but the WHO has said it fears the mosquito-borne disease could spread rapidly among people who are poor, nomadic and unvaccinated.
| Which is about 99% of Sudan ... |
The case fatality rate is 25.2 percent in the outbreak, which the health ministry said began on November 10. More than half of the known cases are in the town of Dilling. Some 1.7 million doses of vaccine against yellow fever, sent from an emergency stockpile, arrived in Sudan at the weekend and a mass vaccination campaign is to begin soon, according to the WHO, a United Nations agency.
| Unless someone issues a fatwa saying that the vaccine is going to sterilize Moose-Limb men or something. |
There is no immunity against the disease in the region, where it is not endemic, and there is no history of vaccination of the population over the past 10 years, according to the WHO. Spraying of mosquitoes and their breeding places, as well as public education campaigns on the need to wear protective clothing, were under way. |