Los Angeles Times | May 18, 2016
“In my view calling an emergency committee for yellow fever is clearly the right thing to do,” Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, said in an email.
“First, there is the potential for rapid spread to other countries and regions, threatening the health of large populations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere,” Gostin said. “Second, as the crisis escalates, global supplies of the yellow fever vaccine are dwindling and we could easily face a critical shortage. What this new emergency committee demonstrates is that mosquito-borne diseases — Zika and now yellow fever — pose major threats. This requires a war against mosquito vectors with resources and a full range of technologies, as well as health education.”