[Editorial] Yellow fever: the consequences of neglect (Lancet Infectious Diseases)

Yellow fever is a vector-borne viral disease endemic to Africa and Americas that represented a major challenge for public health until the early 1930s, when a vaccine was developed. Mass immunisation campaigns have greatly reduced its incidence and now yellow fever is mainly reported in small outbreaks in tropical forests where it is maintained through a sylvatic cycle involving monkeys as a natural reservoir. Yet, it was known that an urban outbreak of yellow fever in a large city in the tropics would present challenges for control because such setting combines many and diverse risk factors for the disease, such as high population density, frail public-health infrastructures, and high density of mosquitoes.