That yellow fever jab could be the best item on your trip

By Ayoki Onyango

There was an outbreak of yellow fever in some parts of Uganda early this year.

This has intensified medical requirements for those who are now travelling from East Africa to other countries.

And as Muslims prepare to go for their annual pilgrimage to Mecca this year, they will be required to carry valid certificates showing that they have been vaccinated against yellow fever.

Yellow fever vaccination cards are required for international travels and for those going to or coming from endemic zones.

Kenya is an endemic zone for yellow fever as well as Saudi Arabia.

Yellow fever, according to doctors, is highly contagious and must be prevented before it sets in.

Aedes mosquito

Once the disease sets in it is over 50 per cent fatal. It said the disease infects about 500,000 people in Africa and kills approximately 40,000 people every year.

And the best mode of prevention is through vaccination. Those travelling to endemic zones stand higher risk of getting the disease.

They include soldiers who go to different countries on peacekeeping missions, as they usually stay in bushes and forests that are infested by the aedes mosquito, religious groups who go abroad for evangelisation, and the general public who travel to various parts of the world for various reasons.

They stand a high risk of ferrying the disease there or bringing it here.

And because of its prevalence and seriousness, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has now put it as a condition that vaccination against yellow fever must be undertaken to prevent infections and the spread of the disease not only for those travelling to other countries but also for those at risk of the disease.

Therefore, everybody requires vaccination to be protected against the disease.

Afraid of injection

The Ugandan outbreak at the beginning of this year even put more Kenyans at risk given the movement of Kenyans to and from Uganda.

It is for this reason that vaccination against yellow fever is now routinely undertaken.

However, investigations reveal that people in a hurry to travel out of the country usually buy the blank yellow fever cards, fill them and rubber-stamp them and actually travel without being vaccinated — reason being, they are afraid of an injection and/or are ignorant about the dangers associated with this killer disease.

The practice is very common in Mombasa where large swathe of Muslims or pilgrims usually travel to Saudi Arabia for annual Hajj.

The certificate is prerequisite condition for a visa to countries where the disease is commons.

And people likely to opt for cards without vaccinations are those who travel on short notice since it takes to ten days after the vaccination to develop immunity against the disease and for the certificate to become valid.

But given the new technology available today, it would be easy for the health officials at the Saudi airport to detect this malady.

And the consequences are serious.

It must also be remembered that yellow fever vaccination, is not only required for those travelling to danger zones, anybody at risk of the disease needs to get immunisation since it can kill the infected person.

Yellow fever affects 34 countries in Africa and the WHO latest report says it attacks 200 million people globally every year.

Without proper treatment and lack of preventive measures, some of the victims and up dying of the disease.

The good news for Kenyan travellers is that a vaccine known as Stamaril, which offers protection against yellow fever for 10 years exists locally.

It can be obtained in all designated centers that authorised to carry out vaccination against yellow fever. According to doctors, the vaccines should be taken ten days before one travels in order to develop immunity.

It must also be remembered that one does not require consent from a doctor to be vaccinated or immunised against any vaccine preventable diseases, yellow fever included.

Seasonal flu

You simply enter into a designated vaccination centre and ask for the jab.

Other medical requirements for pilgrims to Mecca are vaccination against flu as well as vaccination against meningitis.

Vaccination against flu is the latest requirement by the Saudi Arabian government because of the emergence of H1N1 and avian or bird flu H1N5, both of which are killer diseases or carry killer viruses.

And because the last flu pandemic was as a result of H1N1 strain, all seasonal flu vaccines worldwide now offer protection against H1N1 or swine flu for that matter.

And for the pilgrims, failure to adhere to the above medical requirements by Saudi government would mean being quarantined at the Saudi Arabian airport and deportation back home.

The writer is a medical journalist and a student of law.