History of yellow fever History of yellow fever The evolutionary origins of yellow fever most likely lie in Africa. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the virus originated from East or Central Africa, with transmission between primates and humans, and spread from there to West Africa. The virus as well as the vector "Aedes aegypti", a mosquito species, were probably brought to the western hemisphere and the Americas by slave trade ships from Africa after the first European exploration in 1492. The first outbreaks of disease that were probably yellow fever occurred in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean on Barbados in 1647 and Guadalupe in
Yellow fever vaccine shortages in vaccine supplies. Demand for yellow vaccine for preventive campaigns has increased from about 5 million doses per year to a projected 62 million per year by 2014. UNICEF reported in 2013 that supplies were insufficient. Manufacturers are producing about 35 million of the 64 million doses needed per year. Demand for the yellow fever vaccine has continued to increase due to the growing number of countries implementing yellow fever vaccination as part of their routine immunization programmes. Recent upsurges in yellow fever outbreaks in Angola (2015), Democratic Republic of Congo (2016), Uganda (2016), and more recently in Nigeria