EYE on Yellow Fever

Brazil has long been on the frontlines in the fight against Yellow Fever. In this episode, we hear the story of the country's response to a recent three-year outbreak which tested its resources and cost hundreds of lives. Dr Rivaldo Venâncio da Cunha, Deputy Secretary for Health and Environmental Surveillance at the Ministry of Health in Brazil and the eminent Dr Pedro Vasconcelos, Professor of Pathology and specialist in arbovirology and tropical medicine at Pará State University, share their experience and insights on developing surveillance systems to detect the Yellow Fever virus in communities and launching mass vaccination campaigns, successfully controlling the epidemic in the country.

In this episode, we delve into the remarkable progress of the Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) Strategy, which has vaccinated over 350 million people since 2017. This success story is a testament to the power of global partnerships. As the EYE Strategy approaches the end of its 10-year operational period, we explore what has been achieved and what still needs to be done to ensure the continued success of this global immunisation Effort. We hear from Dr Laurence Cibrelus, Global Lead for the EYE Strategy and from Dr Ephrem Lemango, Associate Director and Chief of Immunisation at UNICEF.

Since 2020, Africa has witnessed a resurgence of yellow fever. In this episode, we explore the reasons behind this surge and the measures being taken to combat it. We hear a comprehensive overview of the yellow fever situation across the continent, from Dr Charles Shey Wiysonge, Team Leader for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases at the WHO's Regional Office for Africa, examining factors such as vaccine hesitancy, post-Covid immunisation gaps, and population movement. We also hear from Dr. Antoinette Mbailamen Demian, Director of Immunisation at the Ministry of Health in Chad, about how her country is managing the influx of refugees from Sudan and tackling recent outbreaks.

En Afrique, le Ghana fait figure de modèle de réussite en matière de lutte contre la fièvre jaune. Dans cet épisode bonus, nous allons nous entretenir avec deux scientifiques à la tête du programme de vaccination du pays. Le Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, du service de santé du Ghana, et le Dr Fred Osei Sarpong, de l'OMS, nous font part de leur expérience et de leur point de vue quant à la manière dont l'implication des communautés, même les plus inaccessibles, s'est avérée déterminante pour enrayer et endiguer les épidémies de cette maladie mortelle qui sévit dans le pays

De quelle manière les pays à risque se préparent-ils à réagir rapidement en cas d'épidémie de fièvre jaune en milieu urbain ? La Dre Linda Esso, haute fonctionnaire de la santé publique au Cameroun, évoque les défis auxquels son pays est confronté pour gérer de manière proactive la menace que représente la fièvre jaune. Nous allons également recueillir le témoignage du Dr Peter Mbondji, qui a élaboré des directives afin d'aider les pays à se préparer et à intervenir en cas d'épidémie en milieu urbain.

Yellow fever presents a clear and present danger to populations across Africa, with WHO teams and partners working hard to curb outbreaks across multiple African countries. The base of operation for the response coordination is Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou. For this episode, incident manager Dr Ado Bwaka and vaccination lead Dr Hadiatou Diallo join us from Burkina Faso to share their learnings.

Who determines whether suspected yellow fever cases can officially be declared an outbreak? We visit a research centre in Senegal that is at the heart of yellow fever diagnostics. The Institut Pasteur de Dakar is one of three regional reference laboratories for yellow fever in Africa that tests samples sent from across the continent. Dr Gamou Fall, head of IP Dakar's yellow fever Regional Reference Laboratory, takes us through that painstaking process

We focus on a disease-monitoring system that is literally out of this world. Dr Charalampos Kontoes - Research Director of Greece's National Observatory of Athens - coordinates an early warning system that tracks mosquitoes' movement using satellites. He tells us about the technology and how it's recently been given European money to expand and scale up the operation.

In this final episode of EYE on yellow fever, three key members of the EYE Partnership reflect on key themes from across the series. Also, in the face of COVID-19, global warming, the refugee crisis and increasing urbanisation, will EYE live up to the targets and goals it has set itself by its deadline of 2026? With Dr Christopher Gregory from UNICEF, Cassandra Quintanilla from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and EYE Secretariat lead Dr Laurence Cibrelus.

Yellow fever and other disease outbreaks often beset vulnerable, conflict-affected places. This increases risk, and makes prevention and response more complex. The challenging reality of tackling infectious disease in humanitarian settings, with Dr Jorge Castilla, the World Health Organization's Senior Coordinator for Health Emergency Response, and Dr Daniela Garone, International Medical Coordinator for Medicins Sans Frontiers.

By 2026, the EYE Strategy aims to have ended yellow fever epidemics, and to have protected up to a billion people in Africa and the Americas with preventative yellow fever vaccinations. This is allied with a broader vaccination framework: Immunization Agenda 2030. In this episode, WHO Director of the Department of Immunisations, Vaccines and Biologicals, Dr Kate O'Brien sets out the priorities of two strategies, and how they jointly make a global impact. The EYE Strategy: https://www.who.int/initiatives/eye-strategy Immunisation Agenda 2030: https://www.who.int/teams/immunization-vaccines-and-biologicals/strategies/ia2030 Documentary film (in French with subtitles) on EYE's recent preventative vaccination campaign in DRC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvEAUjXPyhA&t=1s

The warming of our planet is, for many reasons, among the most significant issues of our age. But we perhaps don't give enough thought to climate change as specifically a health crisis. For example, what will happen when new areas of the world are hot and humid enough to support pathogen-carrying mosquitoes? This episode hears from Professor Rachel Lowe of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at Madison's University of Wisconsin, and WHO vector control specialist Dr Florence Fouque.

In the days before scientists understood how yellow fever was transmitted - and well before there was a vaccine - people referred to the disease by how it manifested itself. They called it "Vómito Negro" - black vomit. In this episode, Dr Sylvain Aldighieri from the Pan American Health Organization helps us chart the deadly history of yellow fever from 3000 years ago through the present day. We also speak to Dr Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO's Assistant Director-General for emergency response about the setting up of the EYE strategy and the plan to eliminate yellow fever epidemics by 2026.