A Review of the Results of Yellow Fever Protection-Tests on the Sera of Primates from Kenya

Abstract

It was at first presumed that protection-tests in monkeys in Kenya would give information on the activity of yellow fever virus as is the case in Uganda. However, it is shown that the general immunity rate among Kenya primates is only 4.3% as compared with a generalrate of 40.6% immune in Uganda. In 4 areas in Kenya, where animal yellow fever is known to occur, the immunity rate in monkeys is 1.8%, but in bush-babies (Galago spp.) the rate is 17.3%. These findings resemble those of a preliminary survey of primates in a dry part of Uganda where immunity was demonstrated only in G. senegalis and not in monkeys. In the hotter and drier parts of the country bush-babies and not monkeys may be the principal mammalian hosts of the virus. Because of the habits of the galagos it seems unlikely that mosquitoes can maintain the animal disease.