UN sends 3.5M emergency yellow fever vaccines to Brazil

HEALTH

UN sends 3.5M emergency yellow fever vaccines to Brazil

The Associated Press Published Friday, March 31, 2017 9:11AM EDT

Manuel de Freitas removes his shirt to expose his arm as a health worker fills a syringe with a yellow fever vaccine in Casimiro de Abreu, Brazil, Friday, March 17, 2017. (AP / Leo Correa)

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LONDON -- The World Health Organization said it and partners have shipped 3.5 million doses of yellow fever vaccine to Brazil to help the country stamp out its worst outbreak in years.

WHO helps maintain an emergency stockpile of yellow fever vaccine of about 6 million doses, intended to help poor countries. In a statement on Thursday, WHO said Brazil would reimburse the cost later; one of the five vaccine producers is Brazilian.

To date, more than 490 cases of yellow fever have been reported. Since January, WHO and partners have shipped more than 18 million vaccines to Brazil, although no accountability mechanism exists to verify how the shots are used.

Last year, WHO and its partners lost track of at least 1 million doses of yellow fever vaccine sent to Angola.