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 fever certificate of vaccination for travelers. Increases in cases of yellow fever in endemic areas of Africa and South America in the 1980s were addressed by the WHO Yellow Fever Initiative launched in the mid-2000s. The initiative was supported by the Gavi Alliance, a collaboration of the WHO, UNICEF, vaccine manufacturers, and private philanthropists such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gavi-supported vaccination campaigns since 2011 have covered 88 million people in 14 countries considered at "high-risk" of a yellow fever outbreak (Angola was considered "medium risk"). Activities of the Yellow Fever Initiative are managed through an international coordinating