Timeliness of Yellow Fever Specimen Collection and Transport in Ghana, 2018-2022.

ABSTRACT: Yellow fever is a mosquito-borne viral hemorrhagic fever that has caused recent outbreaks in African countries, including Ghana (2021-2022). Delayed diagnosis of yellow fever may cause increased morbidity and mortality. To improve timely detection of yellow fever, we need to better understand the factors contributing to diagnostic delays. We analyzed the diagnostic testing timeline of all suspected yellow fever cases in Ghana from 2018-2022. For these patients we calculated the days from symptom onset to specimen collection and arrival at the National Public Health and Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) for testing. We compared these times to World Health Organization (WHO) metrics. For suspected yellow fever cases, the time from symptom onset to specimen arrival had a median of 10 days (interqu

SUBMITTER: Judson SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12204298 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature