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Yellow Fever |
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Yellow fever (also called yellow jack, black vomit or sometimes American Plague) is an acute viral disease. It is still an important cause of hemorrhagic illness in several African and South American countries despite existence of an effective vaccine. In the past it was a source of several devastating epidemics. As of 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that yellow fever causes 200,000 illnesses and 30,000 deaths every year in unvaccinated populations.
The disease is caused by an arbovirus of the family Flaviviridae, and is one of the smallest RNA viruses isolated from man.
Mosquitos are the primary vector in transmission of the disease from forest monkeys to humans and in person-to-person transmission. The mosquitos involved are Aedes simpsoni, Aedes africanus, and Aedes aegypti in Africa; and the Haemagogus and Sabethes genera.
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