Yellow Fever near Soddo
We have bad news and good news…
The bad news: there has been an outbreak of Yellow Fever in our region of Ethiopia, affecting about 35 people and killing 10.
The good news: Three of Soddo Christian Hospital’s staff members were instrumental in identifying the disease and reporting the outbreak to the World Health Organization, leading to the shipment of 1.5 million doses of the vaccine to Ethiopia.
The discovery of the outbreak began when a patient showed up at our hospital with all the classic symptoms of Yellow Fever. But since that virus has not been present here in recent history, clinicians were hesitant to identify it as such right away. However, the next day another patient presented with similar symptoms and died. Then other patients at the hospital began telling our staff stories about people dying in a certain town – three of them in the same family!
That’s when Dr. Ribka, Dr. Sok, and Nurse Woynishet reported their suspicions to the Zonal Health Officer, even though it was late on a Saturday night. Immediately, the CDC, WHO and UNICEF got involved with investigating, documenting and testing. Yellow Fever was indeed the confirmed diagnosis.
Photo L to R, Dr. Joakim, missionary infectious disease specialist from Sweden; Nurse Woynishet, works in ER and is responsible for reporting infectious diseases to health officials; Dr. Ribka, general practitioner; Dr. Sok, missionary internal medicine specialist.
Thanks to the astuteness and persistence of our staff, 1.5 million Yellow Fever vaccines are now in Ethiopia. Our hospital is one of the immunization sites, having already immunized nearly 1,000 people since last Friday.
We are so very proud of our staff for acting quickly, containing the outbreak, and saving many lives!
Dr. Sok updating the SCH medical staff about the Yellow Fever outbreak and the containment strategy
The official news story at: https://in.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-yellowfever/yellow-fever-kills-10-in-ethiopia-who-ships-1-45-million-vaccines-idINKCN1NA2K3
