Yellow fever is a sometimes fatal viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Within 3 to 6 days following infection, a high fever, chills, headaches, muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting may occur. Patients with this mild form recover within a few days. Previously, vaccination was recommended every 10 years. Currently, the WHO only recommends a single dose, considering it sufficient for lifetime protection.
The yellow fever vaccine is highly effective (practically 100%). Its effectiveness starts about 10 days after vaccination and lasts for life. Reactions to the yellow fever vaccine are generally mild and short-lived; they include headaches, muscle pain, and mild fevers.
However, a claim published on November 23, 2023, on the Cameroonian news site called “Cameroun Web,” and shared through the Phoenix application, also circulating in WhatsApp groups in the Central African Republic, asserts that the yellow fever vaccine causes blindness and paralysis in children. The content of the post states: “Scandal: a baby who was fine becomes blind and paralyzed after receiving a vaccine.”
The yellow fever vaccine protects the child for life, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.
“On the contrary, the yellow fever vaccine protects the child for life. Vaccines do not cause other diseases; the vaccine cannot cause blindness or paralysis. Instead, the yellow fever vaccine protects children against the yellow fever virus. You only vaccinate once, and the person is protected for life,” said Dr. Valentin Nebanga, Head of Information Promotion at the Ministry of Health, in an interview with Centrafrique Check on August 20, 2024.
Interviewed on August 20, 2024, Dr. Anicet Médard Ngbayou, head of the Malimaka Hospital Center in the 5th district of Bangui, spoke about the baseless misinformation: “These are false pieces of information. Has the person checked what we call the Vaccine Control Record, known as VCR? These are fabricated pieces of information.”
Dr. Kosh Komba Jess Elio, oncologist and pediatrician, also denied the claim in an interview on August 9, 2024: “You know, we continue to administer the vaccine. The yellow fever vaccine does not cause paralysis or blindness in children.”
No case recorded at the Mother and Child Center.
“I am hearing this information for the first time. The Ministry and the WHO would never provide the population with a vaccine that could harm public health. The yellow fever vaccine is good for all those who need it, but claiming that the vaccine causes blindness and paralysis is a non-issue. In more than 10 years of service at the Mother and Child Center, I have never recorded such a case,” emphasized Clémentine Pulchérie Amboryot, midwife at the Mother and Child Center under the Ministry of Social Affairs, in an interview with Centrafrique Check on August 21, 2024.
An information sheet on the INFOVAC website states that “reactions to the yellow fever vaccine are generally mild and short-lived; they include headaches, muscle pain, and mild fevers.”
In conclusion, the post claiming that the yellow fever vaccine causes blindness and paralysis in children is false, as verified by Centrafrique Check.
