yellow fever

noun

: an acute infectious disease that is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America, is marked by symptoms (such as fever, muscle pain, and headache) of sudden onset which typically resolve within a few days but are sometimes followed by more serious symptoms (such as jaundice, high fever, and hemorrhage), and is caused by a flavivirus (species Yellow fever virus of the genus Flavivirus) transmitted especially by the yellow-fever mosquito

Examples of yellow fever in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Gavi now supports stockpiles of outbreak-specific vaccines for cholera, yellow fever, meningococcal disease and Ebola so the countries most affected can focus their health-care resources on chronic disease, snakebites, cancer and HIV, among other conditions. —Tara Haelle, Scientific American, 15 Oct. 2024

Currently, vaccines exist for chikungunya virus, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis virus and dengue. —Matthew Binnicker, Forbes, 7 Sep. 2024

In 1851, European states gathered for the first International Sanitary Conference to discuss cooperation to reduce the ruinous health and economic costs of responding alone to cholera, plague, and yellow fever. —Thomas J. Bollyky, Foreign Affairs, 28 Mar. 2020

That’s a constant problem in developing countries where conditions like cholera, typhoid or yellow fever are present, according to the World Health Organization. —Jen Christensen, CNN, 27 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1738, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

yellow fever

noun

: an infectious disease of warm regions (as sub-Saharan Africa) that is marked by fever, headache, muscle aches, yellowness of the skin, and sometimes death and that is caused by a virus transmitted by a mosquito

Medical Definition

yellow fever

noun

: an infectious disease of sudden onset that is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America and includes acute symptoms (as fever, muscle pain, headache, and nausea) which typically resolve within a few days but are sometimes followed by more serious symptoms (as jaundice, abdominal pain, high fever, hemorrhage, and kidney impairment) which may lead to death

Note: Yellow fever is caused by a single-stranded RNA virus of the genus Flavivirus (species Yellow fever virus) transmitted from monkey to human or human to human especially by the yellow-fever mosquito.

Few Americans realize that yellow fever was not always a disease of the faraway tropics. In 1878, an outbreak of yellow fever—the virus carried to the United States in mosquitoes from Africa—killed 20,000 people in the Mississippi Valley.

—Mary Roach, The New York Times Book Review

Although mass vaccination campaigns in Africa between the 1940s and 1960s led to the near disappearance of yellow fever, inadequately immunized populations and urbanization set the stage for the disease to reemerge. By the 1990s, there were an estimated 200 000 annual cases, with 30 000 deaths.

—Clem Spalding, The Journal of the American Medical Association

called also yellow jack