Two weeks ago, we reported on the increase of imported yellow fever in Europe after health officials reported a travel-associated case of yellow fever in the Netherlands in March 2017 in a traveler to Suriname.

Suriname/CIA
Suriname/CIA

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization released  the following details on the case:

On 9 March 2017, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands reported a case of yellow fever to WHO. The patient is a Dutch adult female traveller who visited Suriname from the middle of February until early March 2017. She was not vaccinated against yellow fever.

The case was confirmed for yellow fever in the Netherlands by RT-PCR in two serum samples taken with an interval of three days at the Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC), Rotterdam. The presence of yellow fever virus was confirmed on 9 March 2017 by PCR and sequencing at Erasmus MC, and by PCR on a different target at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.

While in Suriname, the patient spent nights in Paramaribo and visited places around Paramaribo, including the districts of Commewijne (Frederiksdorp and Peperpot) and Brokopondo (Brownsberg), the latter is considered to be the most probable place of infection. She experienced onset of symptoms (headache and high fever) on 28 February 2017 and was admitted to an intensive care unit (University Medical Center) in the Netherlands on 3 March 2017 with liver failure. The patient is currently in critical condition.

Suriname is considered an area at risk for yellow fever and requires a yellow fever vaccination certificate at entry for travellers over one year of age arriving from countries with risk of yellow fever, according to the WHO list of countries with risk of yellow fever transmission; WHO also recommends yellow fever vaccination to all travellers aged nine months and older. This is the first reported case of yellow fever in Suriname since 1972.

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