Yellow fever diagnostics

Timely, reliable identification and confirmation of yellow fever allows more rapid containment of outbreaks and better prioritization of preventive vaccination efforts in the context of the finite yellow vaccine supply. The available commercial test kits for yellow fever screening are lacking validation of their accuracy by stringent regulatory authorities and hence not used to confirm yellow fever cases to inform decisions about launching reactive vaccination campaigns. To address the issue, UNICEF, Gavi Alliance and the World Health Organization (WHO) have joined forces to improve availability of quality-assured, effective and efficient diagnostics for yellow fever.

Gavi requested UNICEF to collaborate for procurement and distribution of yellow fever diagnostics and appointed it as a procurement agency to support Gavi’s work on creation and operation of a mechanism for procurement and distribution of yellow fever diagnostics.

Countries that secured Gavi approvals for funding support to their yellow fever diagnostic capacity may request UNICEF to schedule yellow fever supplies shipments to the nominated laboratories following the process steps described in the guide Arranging Gavi-funded Yellow Fever Supply Shipments to Laboratories.

A request form must be completed by requestors for each new procurement. Please write to the Yellow Fever Diagnostics Team on [email protected] for a copy, submission and questions about the form.