Dr. Esteban Kosak 
Yellow fever is a disease because of the Yellow Fever virus infection in developing countries. People with this infection can have mild, moderate, or very severe symptoms and complications.
The yellow fever virus that causes Yellow Fever is carried and passed by mosquitoes, specifically those relating to the Aedes and Haemogogus species. The yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti can also transmit several other viral diseases. The list includes dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever, and more.
Although this disease only exists in the United States in people traveling abroad. They acquire the disease and then return to the country. Mostly in developing countries, Aedes aegypti can cause surges in yellow fever cases. In these places, there are too many mosquitoes and people without vaccination. Therefore, this is the perfect scenario for the mosquito to pass the virus between people and represents a constant health threat.
Forty-seven countries between Africa, Central, and South America have at least one region with Yellow Fever cases’ constant appearance. Infrequently, travelers that visit such areas get infected and carry the disease back to their home country, where the virus is no-existent. In order to prevent that from happening, there is a vaccine available for those who visit or come from those regions.
When symptoms are mild or moderate, it causes flu-like symptoms that length about three to four days. Yet, after those symptoms disappear, a small but non-insignificant percentage of patients, in twenty-four hours, could develop a severe form of the disease. A high fever appears with liver and kidney dysfunction, among other complications. It could cause death without treatment.
Doctors count on several ways of diagnosing the disease, which is particularly difficult in the early stages. Regarding treatment, although there is no specific treatment or antibiotic for this condition. Early assessment and support by a doctor for sure improve the chances of having possible good outcomes. Doctors will treat dehydration and other possible life-threatening complications as kidney failure if they appear.
This tool is a Yellow Fever Symptoms Checker. It gathers the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for this disease.
The Yellow Fever mostly affects tropical and subtropical zones of Africa, Central, and South America. And even amongst US travelers, it is an odd cause of disease when they return to the country.
Importantly, doctors recognize the disease due to recent travel history to an area where it is common. Besides, they also assess patients’ symptoms and ask for specific blood tests that diagnose Yellow Fever.
This tool does not replace a necessary doctor’s assessment or blood exams for diagnosing the disease. Still, the tool has questions that aim to find the most important signs, symptoms, and risk factors for Yellow Fever in a patient. Therefore, the tool will tell anybody who uses it the likelihood of their symptoms because of Yellow Fever.
Keep in mind that several other diseases could present symptoms and risk factors similar to Yellow Fever’s one (i.e., Dengue Fever). Consequently, only blood tests can discriminate between those diseases. However, using the tool is free and would only take a few minutes to know if your symptoms could be due to Yellow Fever.
- Question of
Did you receive the Yellow Fever vaccine at any time in your life?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you receive the Yellow Fever vaccine in the last ten years?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Do you have less than a week (or are you still there) of returning from an overseas trip to Africa, Central, or South America?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you visit tropical rain forests areas on that trip?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you spend at least two weeks on that travel?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did you develop during your trip or in the first week of your arrival to the US any of the following symptoms? Click yes if you have at least two of them: Fever (preferably use a thermometer which needs to shows more than 101,3 °F or touch your forehead and determine if the temperature is increased), chills, back pain, headache, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, fatigue, or weakness.
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did these symptoms last more than seven days without any betterment?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
Did these initial symptoms length 3-4 days and then decreased in severity for hours or a day?
- Yes
- No
- Question of
After this maximum of 24 hours decrease in symptoms severity, now do you have severe symptoms again? The symptoms could include fever severer than before, vomiting, abdominal pain, yellow coloration of the skin or eyeballs, small purple spots in the skin, bleeding gums, dark vomit, or dark stools.
- Yes
- No
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