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Student Examines Spread of Yellow Fever in West Africa
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The Tulane/Centre International de Recherche |
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| Emily Jentes, studying mosquitoes in a tropical medicine laboratory at Tulane. Photo by Rick Olivier. |
Emily Jentes, doctoral student in tropical medicine, compares her work studying yellow fever in the West African country of Guinea to an episode of MacGyver. Every day posed constant challenges for her and her team as they solved problems, such as gas shortages, to continue their effort to understand the transmission of yellow fever in the region.
“Although there are periodic outbreaks of yellow fever in Guinea, there is very little surveillance of yellow fever in particular,” says Jentes.
She and a team were analyzing the species of mosquitoes in the area, studying the natural and manmade habitats where they bred, and assessing the spread of the disease.
Yellow fever is an ongoing problem in Africa where fragile healthcare systems and a lack of surveillance make it hard to grasp the spread of the disease, says Jentes, who previously worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on zoonotic issues. She received a Vector-borne Infectious Disease Training Grant to complete a PhD at Tulane.
Jentes and a team led by tropical medicine researcher Daniel Bausch traveled to Guinea to collect and test mosquitoes beginning in June 2005. They also studied satellite imagery of the landscape and surveyed households to find out about areas where mosquitoes were flourishing. As they conducted the study, the team trained technicians at N’Zérékoré National Hospital to test for antibodies indicating recent infection of yellow fever or dengue virus.
Jentes says the experience of working in Africa was eye-opening.
“It is very easy for people outside of Africa to make judgments about why conditions are the way they are,” Jentes says. “But until you see the system firsthand, you’re unable to completely understand why people can’t find food or educate their children. I’ve become more compassionate and thankful for the resources that have been gifted to me.”
Vaccination can prevent much of the spread of yellow fever. Vaccination campaigns in the region have had some success but face significant barriers due to the cost of vaccines, a lack of healthcare infrastructure, and limited ability for people to get to clinics to get the vaccines. Without accurate record-keeping, no one knows what portion of the population is vaccinated.
“Then when people are not vaccinated, civil unrest and economic conditions often transplant vulnerable populations into areas of transmission,” explains Jentes. Unfortunately, civil unrest has also ended her work in the area—although she hopes to go back one day. She will defend her dissertation, based on this work, later this year.
- Madeline Vann