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Yellow fever is a serious viral infection that’s spread by day time biting mosquitoes. If you’re infected with yellow fever, you can be very sick. So we recommend a careful risk assessment to confirm if you need a yellow fever vaccination, and this should be completed by a registered Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre, like Health Klinix.
Yellow fever, what is it?
Yellow fever vaccination
The yellow fever injection is very effective. However, because it's a live, weakened virus, it can cause serious side effects in some groups of people, for example, those aged less than 9 months or over 60 years.
The yellow fever vaccination is £77 per dose for adults and £77 per dose for children. If you’re travelling then there’ll be a Travel Consultation cost of £30 per person and the vaccine cost, however, if you’re not travelling then it’s only the vaccination cost you pay.
Yellow fever vaccine price
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When visiting areas that have a yellow fever risk, you should take strict bite avoidance measures, These include: - Cover up as much skin as possible - where possible wear loose fitting clothes with long sleeves and long trousers/skirt - Use insect repellent on any exposed skin (we would recommend products containing 50% DEET as this is the optimal concentration. Insect repellent containing natural, DEET free compounds, such as oil of lemon eucalyptus have also proved to be effective) - Sleep under mosquito nets at night
Prevention
Unfortunately, there’s no specific treatment, so yellow fever vaccination is important.
Yellow fever treatment
If you become infected with the yellow fever virus you might not have any symptoms or if you do, they may be very mild and you will eventually go on to make a full recovery. On the other hand, you can also become severely ill. Symptoms you might experience include: - Fever, - Headache, - Bodyache, - Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and the eyes) - Organ failure leading to death As we’re not able to predict who might suffer severe infection, preventative measures, such as yellow fever immunisation are crucial.
Yellow fever symptoms
Yellow fever is caused by the yellow fever virus that belongs to a group of viruses called Flaviviruses. It’s transmitted through the bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. This species of mosquito usually bites from dawn to dusk unlike the Anopheles species which spreads malaria and predominantly bites from dusk to dawn. So, in some areas of the world where both yellow fever and malaria co-exist, the various species of mosquitoes can bite you at any time of day or night. This is important because the tendency is to apply insect repellent only in the evening. This would put you at risk of yellow fever infection in affected areas. Interestingly it’s also the same species of mosquito that also spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus. Yellow fever has a forest cycle where it can infect monkeys, and also an urban cycle where the mosquitoes transmit the virus to humans in towns and cities.The areas with risk of transmission are places where these mosquito species are present, and where the disease has been detected in monkeys or in humans. The yellow fever virus currently only exists in some well defined areas of the world where you’re likely to need yellow fever vaccination before you travel. These include parts of central and South America as well as some countries in Africa.
Yellow fever causes
Mild side effects of yellow fever vaccination commonly include a sore injection site, headache, muscle ache and fatigue As the yellow fever jab is a live, weakened vaccine, a very small number of individuals can have a serious reaction. Therefore, everyone receiving a yellow fever vaccination should have a careful risk assessment by a designated Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre. To give you an indication, the following groups should not receive the yellow fever vaccine (this is not a limited list). Individuals who have/are: - Younger than 9 months - Have an egg allergy - A significantly weakened immune system eg some forms of cancer, chemotherapy, etc - A thymus disorder, such as myasthenia gravis If you're not sure, please ask us for advice.
Yellow fever vaccination side effects
Frequently asked questions
The risk of you contracting yellow fever depends on the following:
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your travel destination and how intense the yellow fever transmission rate is there
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when you travel (most cases of yellow fever in travellers have occurred in the late rainy season to the early dry season)
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how long you spend in the risk areas
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what activities you undertake whilst you’re there, e.g., spending time in densely forested areas
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and whether you’ve had your yellow fever immunisation or not
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To help you answer this question, please take a look at our maps from the Centers for Disease Control below showing the risk areas around the world. You can also look at our individual country pages for further information on destination specific risks.
In general, we would recommend the yellow fever vaccine if you’re visiting a country with yellow fever risk as long as you don’t have a health contraindication (ie a medical or other reason as to why you are unable to receive the vaccine). We're here to help answer any questions.
Yellow fever risk maps for Africa and South America:
CDC Yellow Book
The yellow fever vaccine now lasts for life.
Even if there is a low risk of yellow fever in your destination country, there may still be a certificate requirement.
This is because some countries make it compulsory that you have a yellow fever vaccination certificate if you arrive from a country with yellow fever transmission. Other countries with yellow fever transmission on the other hand, insist that you can only enter their country with a yellow fever vaccine certificate and may even make it part of your visa application.
Further information on the requirements are detailed in our individual country pages, or alternatively, the World Health Organisation has useful and detailed information on specific yellow fever vaccine certificate requirements.
All yellow fever vaccine certificates are also now lifelong. Even those certificates issued before 2016 which may have ‘expired’ are still valid for travel, so please don’t throw them away.
If you’ve lost your yellow fever certificate, Health Klinix or any other designated Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre can issue you a replacement providing you can show documentary proof of the administration of the vaccine. There’s a small charge for this of £30 per certificate.
Yes, certainly. We will first need to undertake a travel risk assessment before we can issue you one. There would be a consultation fee of £30 per person and also a charge for the yellow exemption certificate of £30 per certificate.
Some pregnant women have been exposed to the yellow fever vaccine without any effect on the pregnancy or the baby; but because it’s a live vaccine, it should not be given in pregnancy unless the benefits significantly outweighs any potential risk. You will need a specialist consultation to evaluate your risk.
This is typically 3-6 days.
Yellow fever is not passed on from person to person by direct contact, but it’s transmitted through the bite of mosquitoes.
Authors:
Dr Ravi Gowda, Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine
MBBS, MRCP(UK), DTM&H, MRCGP, DCH, DRCOG, DFFP
Caitlin Lancaster, BSc
Resources:
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Yellow fever certificate vaccine requirements country list - WHO
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Patient information leaflet for Stamaril (yellow fever vaccine)