Re-Emergence of Yellow Fever Virus

Dear Colleagues,

Yellow fever (YF) is among the most important mosquito-borne viral hemorrhagic fevers of public health concern in Africa and Latin America. Yellow fever virus (YFV), the causative virus that infects humans and non-human primates, is an enveloped single-stranded 11,000 bp RNA virus of the family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, that exists in seven genotypes, five found in Africa and two in South America. While outbreaks have been effectively controlled using a safe efficacious vaccine, availability for routine prevention of outbreaks is often constrained, prompting the need for targeted vaccination of high-risk populations. Alarming expansion of disease epidemiology facilitated largely by fast-growing populations and encroachment into disease emergence zones results in approximately 200,000 cases globally, resulting in > 30,000 deaths annually with about a 25% case fatality rate, over 90% in sub-Saharan Africa. The YFV persists in the endemic/sylvatic/emergence zone maintained by transovarially infected sylvatic mosquito species such as Ae. africanus, Aedes Furcifer or Hemagogus species and primates. Transmission to susceptible/unvaccinated humans occurs when people invade forests for various reasons, resulting in sporadic cases that could increase when cases move to populous villages/urban settings with transmission by susceptible rural/urban mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti, Aedes simpsoni), resulting in large epidemics. The increasing frequency of outbreaks requires a better understanding of this complex ecology and epidemiology to facilitate risk mapping for better control/prevention strategy across the globe.

Dr. Rosemary Sang
Guest Editor

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