Geofumadas, advice on yellow fever

Before someone is shy away from the title, I want to clarify that this NOT A SPONSORED POSTHehe

The interest is to avoid a serious problem that is going through a friend of Gijón who traveled to Ecuador last week and has now had to stay in quarantine for several days.

1 What is yellow fever.

It is a viral hemorrhagic fever (FHV) that produces pictures of varying severity, it can range from a simple infection with few symptoms to liver-kidney damage and high lethality shock.

means it can kill. 20% to 50% of patients with hepatorenal disease die within 7 to 10 days of the onset of infection.

Even yellow fever is more lethal than the Ebola virus, for this reason it is an internationally declared disease. the form of contagion is through the bite of an Aedes mosquito (mosquito), such as Dengue. And although this disease reminds us of the years when they built the Panama Canal or exploratory trips to Africa, lately it has been seriously considered because, due to global warming, infections have been found in areas where it was not believed likely due to their climatic conditions.

2. Who are at risk

The map that I am showing below is that of my visitors last year, the areas marked in red are the places where there is risk. High-risk areas are South America, the Caribbean, Africa and some islands in the Pacific where there have been no cases but are susceptible due to tropical conditions.

3 How to prevent

From the outset, the yellow fever vaccine is free in almost all countries, so living in South America in the Antilles should be a moral obligation. This can be done in any public health center thanks to the WHO, what the World Health Organization seeks with this is to prevent the virus from moving to other areas with similar tropical conditions, such as Central America, southern Mexico .

But the vaccine also seeks to prevent you from "hanging the gps", that is why when you are going to travel to one of those countries, the vaccine is required at least 10 days before entering because it is the time it takes for the vaccine to take effect and then it takes 3 to 6 days for incubation. They give you a card similar to a passport that is valid for 10 years, this is called the International Vaccination Card or Yellow Card (not because of football but because of fever).

4 What not to do

It is not convenient to ignore the warning, because your country will let you out but when you want to return, for that matter, at an airport in Colombia the system will not let you pass.

It implies that they will count the days that you have received the vaccine, plus the time it takes to hatch, then they do an exam and if you do not present symptoms they let you out. This could be up to 16 days, they do not place you in a cage with quarantined chickens but you must pay for the hotel and food with the funds that you do not walk.

Moral:  Better pinch ... nothing is lost.

You have to remember that it cannot always be applied, for example if you are a girl and you are pregnant. There are also times that are sold out in public hospitals and you must do it in a private clinic for a modest price of $ 150.

So to get vaccinated, how about the free GIS guys in Venezuela finally decide when and where the event will be, and they invite you with paid expenses ... 🙂