Dear Bloggers,
Recently I got hold of the following statements:
The South African Department of Health has issued a statement that all returning travellers from South Africa to Zambia and travellers from Zambia to South Africa will now require proof of yellow fever vaccination. Previously, this was not required. All in-transit passengers between the two destinations, irrespective of the time period in transit, will also require proof of yellow fever vaccination.
As far as I know there is NO Yellow fever in Zambia.The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently revised the Yellow Fever vaccination recommendations for Africa.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) updated on the 6th May 2011 explained that Zambia and Tanzania fall into countries with only areas of low potential exposure to the yellow fever virus in only some areas.What seems to be happening is that South Africa is not going with the new WHO recommendations. WHO now classifies Zambia & Tanzania as “Countries with only some areas of low potential for exposure to yellow fever virus.” Therefore, “proof of yellow fever vaccination should not be required for people traveling from one of these countries to another country with a vaccination entry requirement (unless that country requires proof of yellow fever vaccination from all arriving travelers.
This is a map from the CDC
Could someone from the South African embassy and Zambian ministry of health please kindly explain to us what is going on.
Yours,
Concerned Traveller
Thanks for this timely response yes very true we need answers I sometimes wonder what south Africa thinks about Zambia
Wow! The map looks like we are on the front-line of an advancing yellow fever army!!! That said, this smacks of the current e.coli saga unfolding in Europe, where for lack of trust, credible verification or just plain hearsay, a government takes a sweeping decision and makes an unfounded announcement. I trust we will get some form of explanation from authorities before we are needlessly harassed at the airline hub of Jo’burg through where most of us transit to our destinations… Bigotry seems to be gaining ground worldwide. God help
This is very unfair and doesn’t make sense.Next we will be asked to vaccinate against Rocky mountain fever.
I have also really failed to understand why these guys demand that useless yellow book. It surprising that its only demanded when you go by bus and particularly at Musina/Beigh bridge border post from my experience.
In 2007 when I went back home to Kitwe, I went by bus and they demanded for it. 2008 I went home using my car (through Botswana) but at the border, there was no mention of it. I sometimes fly going home from time to time, and no one asks for the yellow fever book ta airport.
Unles they have introduced it now. These guys (SA) are just funny people.
Can someone at the Zambian embassy in SA take it up seriously. oh, and can active Zambians in SA push our embassy lazyheads please.
That’s a bull’s eye!
Oooooooooh I have to change my flight arrangement to avoid being troubled Oliver Tambo. Zambezi Airlines do you still go to Dar? Anyway, Kenya Airways is among the best.
imwe mwebakopo,please just get the vaccine and you will help in getting rid of these funny diseases.just go to any District health office and get the jab.For your infor,its k240,000 to get that jab.its a good policy and its usually strict when using buses.
240, 000 my rats ass. People buy vaccine books at intercity for 20pin if only the South African government knew
This is a serous issue for tourism particularly in Zambia as Travel agencies and airlines here in SA are facing problem with this new development.
If the SA authoritiez bazed their decizion on what iz shown on the map, then there iz no need to question that, but to oblige.
Problem is, our government is so afraid of non-existent potential threats (recall the nonsense about windfall tax on the mines? that they almost make us beleive we are second rate human beings. This case is pretty straight forward: South Africa is demanding proof of yellow fever vaccination? Simple -reciprocate. Require all travellers from there to bring along yellow fever certificates and sit back and relax. But our government only seems to be awake when the complaint is coming from foreigners. so until this attitude is addressed, we should forget about trying to have them intervene.
I think the best is to comply
imwe naimwe you can’t see that zambia is bordering danger zone country…………find another topic pliz !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zambians should not feel insulted.Yellow fever does not know political boundaries just draw a straight line from Angola to Tanzania.
the SA govt do not owe you any explanation about their laws or regulations as you are not a South African. Price you pay for being a foreigner. Our laws are even more stringent on aliens. just comply
Why does an African always oppose laws, regulations and rules? African has no regard for the constitution. African has no regard for the rule of law. Without laws in a place were you are too many, is a source anarchy and “survival of the fittest” I can not be surprised a great deal because most our forefathers can be remembered for having conquered this kingdom having carried out this coup’ de ta, sending vinyau to go and arrest phiri and such nonsense. Please let us form good laws to govern our selves in a civilised manner. Laws that can benefit every one and not Laws that can benefit only a certain clik of people.
.. the problem is that even the good laws will be opposed!!!
Just get jabbed, pay K240,000 and shut up!!! Why do you Zambians like short cuts and anarchy? Just because you imagine South Africa owes you for hosting them during the struggle doesnt mean you should be exempted from transmitting deseases. Respect laws of your hosts.
Get the Jab and shut the F…K up. I recently travelled to Brazil and i was asked to get a Yellow fever injection as it is required in Brazil. Whats the problem????
Thats the problem with poverty mentality.You can allow people to put stuff in your body anyhow.The attitude some zambians have would lead them to queue up for mad cows disease just because South Africa says so.Yellow fever is caused by Aedes aegypti mosquito.Our Zambian climate does not support this particular mosquito.If you go to Finland you will find mosquitoes but reason they are not queuing up for anti malarials is their mosquitoes do not transmit malaria.Zambian mosquitoes do not transmit yellow fever.nothing to do with political borders but climatic conditions
If Zambia was endemic for Yellow fever we wouldn’t be having this debate.But asking us to put chemicals and inactivated viruses in our bodys just because some matric graduate can’t read maps is ridiculous.
There is no problem here. If you are travelling by bus from Zambia to SA, the yellow fever books are readily available at Inter City bus terminus for 10 pin only. You can even negotiate for 5 pin. At Beitbridge, they rarely ask Zambians to produce the books, but very strict for travellers from East Africa. In case you forget to buy one, make sure you put aside R20 to bribe the immigration chaps.
Typical Zambian; that is the SA law or directive. If you dont want it dont go there. SADC introduced drivers licences that could identify the region, yet in Zambia everyone bought the licences, no training what so ever. Result? Road carnage!! So everyone with a “Zambian” SADC licence is a high risk to road users in other countries, and the insurance premiums are extremely high. Lesson: you want to lead a good life, follow the laws. We have reached a sad situation where laws are for the poor, while the rich can abuse laws with impunity. Jail is for the poor, the rich will be pardoned; this crap has to stop. Good on SA, good to assume we all have yellow fever, including RBish
An alternative is for SA to position healthy workers at the airport and borders to give JABs to travelers who are not vaccinated and are willing to be vaccinated.Zambia should equally do the same.It will help because most travelers going to SA are not aware about this.
I asked SAA when I was confirming my flight details and they confirmed. Its just to oblige but the funny thing is Namibia shares a boundary with Angola yet its not on the list. Indeed for our own good the jab is the solution.
Concerned traveler, don’t be so pessimistic. There is nothing wrong for the SA government to ask for Yellow Fever vaccination. Even the Tanzanian government is asking travellers from other East African countries for yellow fever vaccination. Its what is called “procedural”
1. the world health organization (who) recently re-classified zambia from yellow fever free to minimal chance in western and north western provinces, so the map above is no longer entirely correct and so is the theory that our climate does not support yellow mosquitoes.
2. the who issues guidelines and recommendations, but it is up to individual countries to make their own rules based on their perception of the threat.
3. if you look at country entry requirements for yellow fever vaccination, countries like zimbabwe and rsa for example, do have this requirement for people travelling from yellow countries, and yet zambia which is bordered by yellow countries to the west, north and east has no such requirement. so travelers from those countries to rsa via zambia can carry the risk. CONTD
South africans should also comply.
CONTD
4. the vaccine is relatively cheap and available whereas treatment is very expensive in that it doesn’t exist.
5. therefore rsa is within its rights to ensure that it protects itself from those who travel between zambia and rsa. if we in zambia want to have lax yellow rules, too bad.
6. so just get the jab, it’s for your own life’s good.
Just get vaccineted, y are u winging. Foolish Zambian .
Zambia does not have Yellow Fever period. Unfortunately for our South Africaan brethren they are always trying to isolate themselves from those who come from Africa. Most know where Zambia is. So people from africa all have the same diseases and characteristics ma Kwe
Zambia does not have Yellow Fever period. Unfortunately for our South Africaan brethren they are always trying to isolate themselves from those who come from Africa. Mos South Africans do nott know where Zambia is. So for them people from africa all have the same diseases and characteristics ma Kwe
# 18 and 19-Good analysis man.I like your thinking.Thats what happens when a country has half baked policy makers.Time south africa revised those rules.
Simple – Zambia should just require it as well and ask all South Africans and Zimbabweans to produce the yellow book. Enough said!
Jlous!! jealous! jealous!This is an administrative barrier to Tourism. South Africa and Zimbabwe have connived to sort out Zambia. Let the Zambian High Commission in South Africa ACT before ba chimbwi go very far! We dont need yellow fever vaccine to far much developed countries such as US. Britain or japan. Lets sort them out by openning more air routes!
Shut up and go through Tanzania to the rest of the world you anarchists. Where is Zambia anyway? Most Azanians would rather go to Europe than another HIV/yellow fever black hole.
# 18, Don’t just talk about mosquitoes. Look at the map and see how close you are to Uturi forest. You don’t even have the capacity to police 6 thousand kilometers of boundary represented on the map. You are required to have the jabs end of story. You can go to Zaire if you like.
An interesting subject. Surely laws and rules cann be encated but there must be a justifiable reason. The writer seem to advance a justifiable reason. But may be the SA authorities are not aware of it. This is the job of our Ambassador in SA to look at and engage the appropriate authority in South Africa. They may want to find out if the SA ambassador to Zambia carries a yellow fever card from Zambia when he visits SA, and whether the Zambian Ambassador to SA does the same when he visits Zambia.
those who don’t know what the issue is all about, would you please shut up and just read from those who do? do you have to open your mouth all the time?
#36, i can tell you that it is without exception. reason: yellow fever has no eyes to enable it choose its victims.
The vaccination of yellow fever is already there but pay a good amount at Oliver Tambo airport.
Apparently it is because the last time Kunda was admitted to Morningside for among other things “fimo fimo slimming sickness” they discovered yellow fever seriously embedded in his medulla oblongata and eyes. That is what led to the South Africa minister of health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to classify Zambia as yellow fever zone. Besides, with Banda’s endless trips to the above yellow fever prone areas, who would blame South Africa for being on the precautionary side? Looking at Banda’s eyes of late, you don’t need to be a sangoma to diagnize him of yellow fever.
This is one of those silly decisions that governments make but unfortunately at the advice of Public Health doctors who would have nothing to do if they did not look busy. The same situation has prevailed for conditions such as HIV/AIDS and TB. Some countries allow a TB patient to visit only if they do not stay longer than 3 months! It’s is like it takes longer than 3 months to spread infection! Now this yellow fever! Who has ever seen a yellow fever patient in these modern days? I hope they are not talking about jaundice. The western world and South Africa have the deadly Hepatitis C, we should also require that no one comes into Zambia without evidence of vaccination against Hepatitis C.
Uhmmm, the situation is really acute. I mean Soube has the reason as to why you should get the vaccine, just look at the demarcation on the map. It’s just like being in a canoe and sourrounded by crocodiles, hippos and sharks… Ni kafwa fwa
People stop politicizing the whole issue.Let the Zambian high commission in SA raise this issue with the health department there.The WHO has clear guidelines on yellow fever.I believe the health Authorities have a reason for that.I just wonder ,have they set up check points for people coming from Uganda where there is Ebola?
i HAVE HAD TO PRODUCE THIS BOOK ON EVERY TRIP TO AFRICA SINCE 2005 SO WHAT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?
IF YOU HAD SUCH HIGH STANDARDS OF HEALTH THIS WOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE.
IF YOU BELIEVED IN MEDICINE OVER WITCH DOCTORS AND JUJU THEN PEOPLE WILL NOT BE DYING.
Do unto them what they do to you
Why does South Africa require Yellow Fever vaccines from Zambians?
Perhaps because its their country and they can put whatever restrictions they like on whoever is coming in.
They know the meaning of sovereignty, something Zambians would do well to look up and learn about.
Thanks for every other great article. The place else could anyone get that type of information in such a perfect means of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the look for such information.
Yah well, you all have a relatively high potential of having been to the yellow tainted areas in the last 10 days before travelling to SA. And people from these areas enter and leave Zed every minute every hour. Go get jabbed. It’s for your own good.
Oh my goodness! Incredible article dude! Many thanks,
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