Timeliness of Yellow Fever Surveillance, Central African Republic - Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Timeliness of Yellow Fever Surveillance, Central African Republic - Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

Volume 20, Number 6—June 2014

Dispatch

Timeliness of Yellow Fever Surveillance, Central African Republic

Article Contents

• The Study
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgment
• References
• Figure 1
• Figure 2
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Technical Appendix - 307 KB 
• Suggested Citation

Antoine Rachas1, Emmanuel Nakouné, Julie Bouscaillou, Juliette Paireau, Benjamin Selekon, Dominique Senekian, Arnaud Fontanet, and Mirdad Kazanji 

Author affiliations: Institut Pasteur, Bangui, Central African Republic (A. Rachas, E. Nakouné, J. Bouscaillou, B. Selekon, M. Kazanji); Institut Pasteur, Paris, France (A. Rachas, J. Bouscaillou, J. Paireau, A, Fontanet); Ministry of Health, Bangui, (D. Senekian);Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris (A. Fontanet)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

During January 2007–July 2012, a total of 3,220 suspected yellow fever cases were reported in the Central African Republic; 55 were confirmed and 11 case-patients died. Mean delay between onset of jaundice and case confirmation was 16.6 days. Delay between disease onset and blood collection could be reduced by increasing awareness of the population.

Because the number of reported cases of yellow fever has increased over the past 2 decades, it is considered a reemerging disease (1,2). The World Health Organization (WHO) requires that all affected countries report yellow fever cases. Increasing risk for resurgence, potential severity of an epidemic, and possibility of preventing its spread by vaccination make early detection of yellow fever outbreaks essential, especially in a country such as the Central African Republic, where access to healthcare is difficult because of security concerns in several areas.

There are minimal data for yellow fever surveillance in Africa. The purpose of this study was to describe the timeliness, which was defined as the delay between date of onset of jaundice reported by the patient and date of an ELISA result, of the yellow fever surveillance system in the Central African Republic and identify temporal and spatial patterns and factors associated with delays in reporting.

Dr Rachas is an assistant professor at the European Hospital Georges Pompidou, Paris France. His primary research interest is the epidemiology of communicable diseases.

Acknowledgment

We thank the WHO office in Bangui for providing funds for transportation of samples to the laboratory and diagnostic reagents and the IPB for providing diagnostic tests.

References

1. Gardner CL, Ryman KD. Yellow fever: a reemerging threat. Clin Lab Med.2010;30:237–60 . DOIPubMed
2. Robertson SE, Hull BP, Tomori O, Bele O, LeDuc JW, Esteves K. Yellow fever: a decade of reemergence. JAMA. 1996;276:1157–62. DOIPubMed
3. World Health Organization. WHO-recommended surveillance standard of yellow fever [cited 2013 Mar 25].http://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/diseases/YF_surveillance/en/index.html
4. World Health Organization. Manual for the monitoring of yellow fever virus infection. Geneva: The Organization; 2004.
5. World Health Organization. Yellow fever in the Central African Republic [cited 2012 Jul 20].http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_12_01/en/print.html
6. Mayaux P, Bartholomé E, Massart M, Van Cutsem C, Cabral A, Nonguierma A, A land cover map of Africa. European Commission Joint Research Centre; 2003 [cited 2014 Mar 1].http://bioval.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/glc2000/products/GLC2000_africa3.pdf 
7. Heymann DL, editor. Control of communicable diseases manual. 19th ed. Washington (DC): American Public Health Association; 2008.

Figures

• Figure 1. Temporal pattern of mean time (delay between date of onset of jaundice reported by the patient and date of an ELISA result) for A) yellow fever surveillance, B)...
• Figure 2. Spatial pattern of mean time (delay between date of onset of jaundice reported by the patient and date of an ELISA result for A) yellow fever surveillance, B) mean...

Tables

• Table 1. Characteristics of 3,220 case-patients with suspected yellow fever, Central African Republic, 2007–2012
• Table 2. Factors associated with timeliness of yellow fever surveillance, Central African Republic, 2007–2012

Technical Appendix

• Technical Appendix. Incidence rates of yellow fever cases, Central African Republic, 2007–2012.  307 KB 

Suggested citation for this article: Rachas A, Nakouné E, Bouscaillou J, Paireau J, Selekon B, Senekian D, et al. Timeliness of yellow fever surveillance, Central African Republic. Emerg Infect Dis [Internet]. 2014 Jun [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2006.130671

DOI: 10.3201/eid2006.130671

1Current affiliation: European Hospital Georges Pompidou and Descartes University, Paris, France.