Emergency yellow fever vaccination campaign kicks off in DRC, Angola

A mass vaccination campaign against yellow fever has kicked off in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed.

An outbreak of the disease in the two countries has killed more than 400 people and sickened thousands more.

For the last eight weeks, there have been no confirmed cases of yellow fever in Angola.

The UN health agency launched the campaign on Tuesday in the DRC capital of Kinshasa, a big urban centre with more than 10 million people.

The agency's spokesperson,  Tarek Jasarevic said: "We expected to vaccinate 14 million people more than 14 million people in the two countries, within the next couple of weeks, out of which 8.5 million people in Kinshasa."

It would be the first time that WHO uses "emergency vaccines", which were fractioned doses providing at least a 12-month protection against the virus.

SOURCE: UN Radio