Vaccines and vaccination against yellow fever: WHO Position Paper – June 2013

Overview

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO is issuing a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and vaccine combinations against diseases that have an international public health impact. These papers, which are concerned primarily with the use of vaccines in large-scale immunization programmes, summarize essential background information on the respective diseases and vaccines and conclude with the current WHO position concerning their use in the global context. The papers have been reviewed by a number of experts within and outside WHO and, since April 2006, are reviewed and endorsed by the WHO immunization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts. They are designed for use mainly by national public health officials and immunization programme managers. However, the position papers may also be of interest to international funding agencies, the vaccine manufacturing industry, the medical community and the scientific media.

This updated position paper on yellow fever (YF) vaccines and vaccination replaces the previous 2003 WHO position paper and summarizes recent developments in the field. Recommendations on the use of YF vaccines were last discussed by SAGE at its meeting in April 2013.